


From Scratch

by Junkyosha (Faceless_Void)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood and Gore, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Madness, Murder, One-Sided Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, One-Sided Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Post-The Last: Naruto the Movie, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-04-23 11:12:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19149868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faceless_Void/pseuds/Junkyosha
Summary: Having lost all of her memories due to the trauma she received in captivity, Hinata gets rescued by a shinobi who stumbles upon her on his road of atonement. Without a clue about each other's true identities, they begin their journey together. Will he manage to get her out of the cage of amnesia? Will she want it at all in the end? [Post-The Last, Dark Themes! One-sided NaruHina!]





	1. Chapter 1

**A/N A few warnings before you begin to read this story! ^^**  
1\. This is gonna be really dark and graphic, you've been warned!  
2\. There will be no character bashing;  
3\. No retcons for anything that happened before The Last either;  
4\. I'm gonna work really hard to avoid any character going OOC (it is very important to me!), so if it seems to you that one is going there please let me know, I'll either agree with you and fix something or add a detailed explanation of why and what is happening to said char!

**Have fun and kindly lemme know what yall think if possible! OwO**

* * *

**Chapter 1. The Day She Was Born**

_Drip._

Her eyelids twitched, indicating that the young woman was not dead yet.

_Drip._

Her thin, delicate fingers half-clenched as if she was trying to hold onto something intangible.

_Drip._

Her shoulders moved ever so slightly, and then her entire body curled like that of an infant in a cradle.

_Drip._

Her bruised face winced as a drop of water slowly rolled down her nose.

 _Drip._  
  
The annoying tickling shortly replaced with relief as the liquid reached her cracked dry lip, reminding that she was still alive and needed to drink.

_Drip…_

She opened her eyes slowly, trying to ignore the unbearable headache this simple motion gave her right away. Fortunately, it was completely dark around — she woke up at night.

The young woman coughed, then again, and again, multiple drops of her blood slowly covering the floor of her cage as she was unable to stop. Although each cough made a small bomb explode inside her head, causing tremendous pain that almost made her want to die, she still tried her best to stay quiet. Although she had yet to come back to her senses fully, intuition already told her that it would be unwise to attract any attention right now. Because it could make  _them_  come back…

As her breath finally became steady again, the girl closed her eyes, trying to pull anything out of the blurry mess that her mind was at the moment.

 _Them?_  Who exactly was she afraid of? What was this place? How had she ended up here? What had these people done to her besides beating her up this much? Who'd done this to her, in the first place? And why?

She stopped breathing for a second, realizing that she couldn't even say who  _she_  was herself! No matter what she tried to get out of her memory, it felt like knocking at a closed gate — she knew that something or someone was behind, but there was no way to find out what exactly it was…

She opened her eyes once more, realizing that she was lying on her right side on a dirty metallic floor. She then unhurriedly eyed herself as much as she could. Completely naked, her slender body was covered with countless bruises, cuts and scratches all down to her toes. None of them was too deep or huge to cause a fatal blood loss; apparently, whoever did this to her wanted her to stay alive for as long as possible. But why? This simple question made her feel childishly puzzled for a moment, genuinely wondering what might these people want from her.

She then carefully moved her head again, fearing another burst of pain, this time to look at her hands. Although her dirty bangs were falling on her eyes now, she could see that her wrists were cuffed with thick iron bracers, chained to the cage itself. Narrowing her eyes a bit, she took a closer look at the skin on her forearm. There was a rough, long scratch that looked different from all the rest that covered her skin everywhere. Her gaze then slid to the sharp piece of damaged lattice poking out right next to her hand — she could rather easily reach it even now, although the girl felt absolutely no energy to try to. In other words…

Had she tried to cut her own veins?

She frowned. This was probably not quite surprising considering her current state, but… Strangely, right now she didn't feel suicidal at all. Perhaps, she had forgotten something? Something they'd done to her? Something so awful that it had actually made her want to kill herself…?

She licked her bleeding lips, only further damaging them with her tongue as there was no moisture in her mouth whatsoever. She needed water… right now.

The girl raised her head a bit and moved, wincing as another flash of searing pain pierced her skull the same instant. The drips of dirty water were now falling directly in her mouth, and although it was barely enough to rid her of the thirst, it still felt relieving. Almost enough for her to purr in bliss as she could feel the energy slowly returning to her bit by bit. Perhaps, it was just an illusion, but right now it didn't matter — she was getting water and it was all that mattered. She didn't really know how long she remained frozen in that position; feeling delirious as fever was taking over her body, the young woman couldn't tell when she was asleep and when awake.

Not until she heard the footsteps approaching her cage, and it made her curl again, hugging herself as the irrational panic instantly filled every fibre of her being, causing he to lose control over herself. In spite of that, it almost felt funny how her mind seemed to be completely disconnected from her body that was going crazy right now while she remained perfectly calm, almost curious to know what was causing her to act like this. As someone came close to the cage and began to unlock it, the girl realized that this person — or people — must have done something absolutely atrocious to her. All of a sudden, despite not remembering a single thing of that, she felt like puking.

"Well, well, how is our little princess doing?" The tall, dark figure entered the cage, coming close to her and stopping before her tiny frame that was shaking in horror. "Tsk… It's a shame I can't exactly get a taste of you, sweetie. You smell so nice…" He ducked and inhaled, the back of his hand carefully touching her cheek and then sliding down to her thin neck. "I wish boss wasn't such an ass and let us spend more time together, duh. Your tits are so nice… Such a good little toy…" He giggled, and it was probably the most disgusting thing she'd ever heard as he put his palm on her chest, which made her want to break his hand even though she knew she couldn't. "Well, we can still have our share of fun, can't we?"

She tried not to look at his face no matter what. Right now she was grateful that she couldn't remember what it looked like — because if she, by some miracle, would get out of here alive, she didn't want his image to haunt her in her dreams later on.

"Let's start off with drawing, shall we?" The person then removed his hand off her, reaching out for his pocket. Against her own will, she glanced at it — he took out a sharp yet rusty kunai. "What flower is your favourite, princess?"

"I… don't know," she whispered, more to herself than in response to his question.

"I'll choose then! No worries, you're gonna love it…" She felt the cold steel touch her side, slowly tearing through the upper layer of her skin, deepening into her flesh.

Surprisingly, the pain he made her feel didn't bother her at all — it was nothing compared to what she felt in her head anyway. Besides, even though the captive realized it was ridiculous and wrong, but right now she felt so detached from her own body that she was nearly sincerely curious to see what exactly he was 'drawing.'

"There… what a beauty," he soundly licked the blade of the kunai, humming in joy at the taste of her blood. "Delicious. What would you like to do next, little bitch?"

She blinked. Was that a genuine question?

"I—I'm hungry…," she said without thinking.

For some reason, it made the person laugh hysterically, to the point where he fell back on his butt, the weapon falling out of his grasp as he kept choking.

"You know what," he took a deep breath, finally stopping after a while, "I could feed you in a way, but I'm afraid boss will notice, and she won't like it. What a shame, ha-ha!"

 _Feed me... in a way…?_ She was unsure what exactly he was implying, and she didn't really want to know, realizing that it had to be something truly obnoxious.

"Well then, now what?" He sighed, leaning his chin on his fist lazily, still sitting on the floor right next to his prey. "You were a lot more fun before… Now you seem brain-damaged, little doll. Lemme take a look…," he gripped her neck roughly and she closed her eyes, still adamant in her decision not to see his face no matter what. "Hmpf! Dunno what the fuck's wrong with you now, but something's different! Wake up, you little shit! Entertain me now!" He threw her away roughly, making the girl's head slam heavily into the lattice of the cage.

The pain was so strong that it almost made her lose her consciousness the same second. She instantly regretted it didn't, now only wishing for one thing — the sweet bliss of oblivion. Maybe death wasn't such a bad idea after all...

"Where are your screams? Your whimpers?! Where is the fear in your eyes, huh? Tell me!" he yelled and got up, and then his foot slammed into her belly, making her choke and curl even more than before.

"Why don't you beg?! Why won't you speak? Talk to me now, bitch!" Another blow — this one felt a bit weaker. Were her senses shutting down?

"I want my toy back! Now! Now! Now! Bring it back!" Another series of hits followed, but she didn't react anymore — like a mere rag doll, she was simply tossed around by his vicious attacks, one after another.

And when another hit reached her forehead by a mistake as he clearly wasn't aiming at it, she could feel nothing but relief and joy as the darkness consumed her.

 _Finally, this is the end…,_  was her last thought as she finally lost her consciousness again, realizing that she most likely wouldn't wake up.

**—=uWu=—**

As he walked through the deep forest, Sasuke felt nothing but peace and tranquillity engulfing everything around including himself. It was completely dark around as the moon wasn't visible from under the rain clouds. But, he didn't mind it at all, enjoying the light cold breeze on his face while he was striding between the huge pines the crowns of which absorbed every ray of light that might still reach him otherwise.

Although the ninja had been moving through these forsaken woods for hours by now, he still didn't feel tired or frustrated. The fact that he hadn't met a single person on his way was a good sign — it meant that he hadn't lost the track of his target. According to the intel he'd obtained from Orochimaru, the small port town he was now heading to was not far away from his current location. Almost completely isolated from the rest of the country, normally it could be reached only via a boat since it was located on the northern seashore. That's why everything for miles around him was supposed to be completely desolate; then again, he didn't mind it either.

The shinobi yawned, stretching his slightly tired limbs and imagining how he would take a shower and rest in a bed soon enough — for the first time in weeks, probably. To be honest, he didn't count days, and he didn't care about his personal comfort all that much. It didn't mean he was unable to appreciate it when he had it, though. It was one of those good things he'd learned during his journey ever since his memorable duel against Naruto at Valley of the End. To enjoy the simplest things life offered to him now and then, treasuring these moments of rest because he knew that they wouldn't last. At least not for him. As a ninja, he couldn't afford to dive into mundane pleasures any often.

_Shinobi are those who endure, after all._

And even that thought made him smile a bit, increasing the pace of his steps. It was good to feel inner balance at long last — something he hadn't felt for over a decade, or maybe never at all...

His stomach grumbled, and he sighed. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty hungry too… If anything, if he were back in Konoha right now, he would probably even agree to eat Naruto's favourite ramen for once. Albeit he would never admit it to his friend or anyone else for that matter, naturally.

In other words, his mind was at complete ease this night, occupied with the most boring and trivial things, which was a rare occasion for him. The Uchiha's mood was unusually good too — he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the weather? After all those days of merciless June heat, the upcoming rain was a delight for sure, especially to someone who was constantly on the move. Speaking of which…

He lowered his head and took a tiny scroll out of his pocket, reading the few crooked words scribbled on it.

' _Please return to Konoha, teme. I need to talk to you._

_Naruto.'_

He smirked.

"Maybe I should go home soon after all…," he murmured.

And as soon as he finished the sentence, Sasuke heard a horrible, blood-freezing scream from a distance.

He frowned, stopping and turning in the direction of the sound. As far as he was aware, there were no settlements around aside from the town he was heading to. Was someone in trouble?

He jumped on the nearest tree, quickly moving from one branch to another as one more anguished cry reached his ears, this time seeming a bit closer. It made the Uchiha pick up some speed, rushing to the rescue.

Just a couple of years ago, he wouldn't give a damn about it, of course. Moreover, remembering his unhealthy state of mind back in those days, the young man realized he could very well have been the one causing these screams. And although he didn't really feel like repenting or anything like that, he knew that he  _was_ guilty. The blood of too many people was on his hands now; he realized that all he could do to redeem himself was to help those he still could, whether he liked it or not. His current goal was to protect the innocent from the shadows and to punish the ones he deemed felonious openly so that everyone would know — _no one_  could escape his judgement. He would leave vague philosophical matters like the cycle of hatred, the ninja creed and all of that for the likes of Naruto to resolve; his job was much more concrete and down-to-earth than that.

Just a few minutes later he stopped on top of a huge pine, looking down at a relatively big camp down below. There weren't too many people, and from what it looked like most of them were asleep near the few huge metal cages they were guarding. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, quickly scanning the area. All of them looked fairly weak except for a single ninja who was, seeing the lack of intensity in the chakra, currently asleep inside a huge marquee, and even that one was nothing compared to the Uchiha himself, of course.

He took a closer look at the cages then, frowning more a second later. If he'd had any doubts concerning what he should do just a moment ago… Now that he could see the condition of their captives, the ninja made his decision — and their sentence was final.

He jumped down, landing near one of the cages and looking inside of it. To his disgust, there was a rotting corpse of a man chained to the ceiling. Already decayed enough to spread some awful sweetish smell around, he was staring blindly at the floor in front of him, the image of fear having been imprinted into his features in his final moments.

The Uchiha grabbed his katana, though not unsheathing it yet. Something wasn't quite right, it was no ordinary lair of bandits. Now that he took a closer look, the camp looked like it was originally meant to be temporary. However, the layer of rust that covered the rods of the cage in front of him clearly indicated that it had been here for at least a few weeks. Possibly more than a month given that tonight's rain was the first one since forever, and the rust didn't seem to be fresh at all.

He turned away, soundlessly walking between the cages and looking around. Besides that apparent thing, there was also the fact that most of the captives — if not all of them — were apparently dead. What was the point in holding them here if their purpose was to die? Why waste time on them at all? There had to be a reason behind that... A not obvious one, most likely.

He walked into the biggest marquee, nearing the improvised bed of the ninja — turned out it was a kunoichi — whose chakra looked the most potent to him among all the rest of people around. Without any warning, the ninja gripped her neck in her sleep. The dark eyes snapped open, but before she could do or say anything, his Sharingan dragged her in the land of lucid dreams — Sasuke's personal genjutsu realm.

"Tell me who you are," he commanded.

"My name is Okina. I am the leader of the Butterfly Dusk," she replied immediately and obediently.

His brow raised a bit at the odd name.

"What are you doing here?"

"We are waiting for Kuro Oni."

"Who is that?"

"The one who is going to take for the ones we captured."

 _Slavers, huh?_  Not that it was uncommon for Land of Rice Fields, but it was still nasty even by his former standards of a criminal. Despite having been a merciless murderer before, Sasuke had a surprisingly high sense of morals when it came to others. One could call him a hypocrite for this, but he honestly didn't care. He had always been the judge, not an indictee. And it would remain this way forever.

"How long have you been here?"

"One hundred and forty-three days."

So his assumption was correct.

"Why this much?"

"Because he hasn't come to take them yet," she replied monotonously.

The Uchiha stared at the woman skeptically.

"Do you realize that if he hasn't come yet, then he most likely isn't coming at all?"

"Yes," came the unexpected reply, baffling him even more.

"Then why are you still waiting?"

She opened her mouth, and then smirked madly, beginning to laugh.

"He needs to come! He  _must_! We need his blessing, there's no point in leaving without it! We're all doomed if he doesn't accept our gift!  _Doomed!_ " The kunoichi then began to chant in some foreign language, rolling her eyes and bouncing back and forth. And only then it belatedly clicked for Sasuke: these people weren't slavers; they were some insane cultists who simply used the people they captured as sacrifices for their rituals!

He gritted his teeth, releasing the genjutsu and taking the woman's head in his hands before breaking her neck with a quick masterful stroke. As her dying body fell on the floor, he turned around and walked from under the tent, looking around and checking if anybody aside from the guards was still alive.

It seemed like the only survivor was a teenage-looking girl — or rather a young woman, just overly exhausted by the captivity. Severely damaged, barely breathing as she was lying in the corner of her cage in the small puddle of her own blood, but still alive somehow. The person who — he presumed — was her watcher was now sitting in the opposite corner, asleep.

That settled it. In a matter of seconds, the Uchiha slaughtered everybody in the camp. Moving like a ghost, or rather a shinigami, he didn't make a single sound nor an unnecessary movement, taking their lives with his blade with outstanding efficiency.

Finally, he opened the girl's cage, the creaky sound making the only remaining man flinch and get up. Sasuke took a curious look at him, studying his features. It was a tall bald shinobi with a black beard. His face was covered with multiple scars and tattoos, but the most notable trait was probably his eyes — the icy-blue irises that gave away only two things: fear and insanity.

"W-Who the fuck are you?!" he cried out, gripping his kunai.

"Are you the one who did this to her?" asked Sasuke calmly, looking directly into his eyes without blinking.

"Haha, no shit! I did! So what? Want me to do the same to you now? I would — gah—!" Before he would finish the tirade, Sasuke cast a genjutsu on him, forcing every cell in the ninja's body to explode in the most intense pain he could feel. A terrifying scream echoed across the forest as he fell on his knees, writhing on the floor in agony.

Turning away from him, the Uchiha quickly walked towards the young woman, gently touching her neck to check the pulse — weak, but still stable.

He sighed in relief, though not exactly because she was still alive — he didn't really care about a particular stranger's life. However, the fact that he could still save her meant that he could also keep fulfilling his purpose. He could do a good thing. Definitely not for her sake, but for his own solace, yet still...

The ninja carefully took her emaciated body in his hands, ignoring her nudity. After all, in her current state, there hardly was anything one could find sexual in her appearance right now. And there was no time to dress her up either; he needed to hurry up to reach the town and find a medical ninja there.

Before it was too late.

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**A/N. Pls don't forget to lemme know what you think, whether it's good or bad news! =^w^= See ya soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. At His Mercy**

A thick dendritic bolt of lightning cut the gloomy sky in half above the small town in the middle of nowhere. Those few people who were already awake this early in the morning were quite happy to see the bright flash outside. A storm was a very rare guest here lately despite the proximity of the sea, and this change of weather was long awaited and surely welcomed by the locals.

The lonely figure watching through the window of an old two-storey house in the outskirts wasn't about to share their excitement, though. Sasuke was too deep in his thought, bothered and torn by the sudden new factor that had already changed his plans drastically. Because he had decided to save the dying woman back in the woods, his target had managed to escape, and now he had no idea where to look for the ninja he'd been chasing for weeks. But, that wasn't even the worst part of the situation young Uchiha found himself in, no. The real problem was much bigger than that.

He realized that right now he was at the parting of the ways as he was forced to choose either of two options he had. The first one was to ignore Naruto's call and continue chasing the target. In this case, there was no guarantee that he'd catch that bastard anytime soon as he'd already lost his track. At the same time, Sasuke would have to ignore his friend's plea to come and see him in Konoha. The second option was to abandon his current quest and return to his home village at once. And in this case, an infamous maniac would keep roaming free, hurting even more people across the elemental nations…

The Uchiha clenched his jaw in frustration, trying to get more comfortable sitting on the windowsill as drops of rain slowly began steadily knocking on the dirty glass of the window. Needless to say, he didn't like either of these ways. However, he also knew that Naruto wouldn't be summoning him unless it was something serious… So what was he supposed to do?  _Stupid dobe_ , he cursed inwardly,  _Could've written at least a couple of words on what exactly happened… I'm gonna kill him if it's for a wedding or something equally stupid._

"Oh, God… who on earth could have done this to this poor young lady…," came the babble from the corner of the dark room. "Alright, let's take a look here… ugh, I'm afraid this is worse than I anticipated… oh well..."

Sasuke ignored the lament of the medic, sighing at his thoughts and then finally lowering his head in defeat. Because he already knew that there was no real choice in a situation like this. Not when his friend was in need of his help.

As sad as it was to admit, he had gotten softer.

"It seems like… her head… argh, can't see from this angle, duh," the other ninja panted, lowering on his knees and, by the sound of it, raising up the unconscious girl's body with his hands. "Gah, my age sure takes its toll… Anyways, it seems like it's not just a regular concussion. Her hippocampus has been seriously damaged; besides, her optical nerves are marred as well… And, I'm afraid, this isn't even the worst part."

For the first time throughout the entire healing session, Sasuke got slightly curious as he heard about the nerves. As someone who possessed the special eyes of Uchiha, having them damaged actually  _was_ one of his personal worst fears.

"Is she blind now?" he asked curtly.

The healer paused, touching her eyelid and lowering to take a closer look.

"Uh… No, no, I don't think so. One might think she is because of what her eyes look like, but I believe it's just a consequence of her trauma. A permanently damaged tenketsu will do it to people sometimes, and her Gate of Healing — the second Inner Gate, that is — it's now completely ruined. That's why her body refuses to fully restore no matter how much chakra I put into it. Wanna take a look, son?"

Sasuke reluctantly turned his head towards them, not getting off the windowsill, and glanced at the man's patient. A lot of her bruises and cuts were now gone as well as the dirt and gore, but her face — the only part of her body currently visible to him — still appeared to have many traces of multiple beatings, torture and other kinds of abuse she had presumably suffered.

"Here, can you see?" the man uttered, carefully opening her eyelid with his fingertips. "Looks like when the Gate, uh… 'exploded', for the lack of a better word, some of her chakra burned the eyes from the inside, you know? I believe this is why they are this weird-looking. She must have a horrible headache when she wakes up… Not gonna lie, it's a miracle that she actually survived that."

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes suspiciously. The woman's entire iris was pearl-white without a sign of a pupil, resembling another dojutsu he was distantly familiar with. Could she be a Hyūga? Of course, this kind of assumption was a bit of a stretch. A mutation like this was pretty common among people who were born with potent chakra. Karin was a good example; then there was also Ino Yamanaka — the blonde girl who had chased him together with Sakura back in the years.

"Isn't that Byakugan?" he asked right away just in case.

"Erm… Byakugan?" the healer frowned, thinking for a while. "As in the dojutsu of Konoha? Could be, I guess. But, uh…," muttered the old man thoughtfully, scratching his short grey beard and then closing her eye before giving the Uchiha a slightly baffled look. "Aren't Byakugan owners all trained to be shinobi?"

Sasuke shrugged unsurely, not looking away from the woman's face. He didn't know much about the Hyūga clan, only some stories from his childhood, but that surely made sense. He couldn't remember a signle civilian Hyūga. And yet...

"What's your point?" he asked a bit impatiently, still not fully convinced.

"Well, come here and see for yourself. I bet you could tell better than I since you are an Uchiha. Check her body up, and if you come to the same conclusion as I, it would mean my hypothesis is correct. In that case, I'll tell you what it is." The other shinobi smiled at him warmly.

The younger ninja then jumped off and came close to the bed, glaring at the tiny motionless figure with a shade of annoyance on his face. Now that she was safe and nothing was threatening her life, Sasuke couldn't help but feel like he was merely wasting his time here. But at the same time, for some reason, he couldn't force himself to leave just yet. It simply didn't strike him as the right thing to do.

So he began examining her patiently. Now that her face was somewhat healed, he could say that her features were delicate and even beautiful — or rather, used to be, considering how messed up her face was now. However…

Sasuke grabbed her blanket and carefully pulled it off, studying the skin all over her body and ignoring the fact that she was still completely naked. Frankly, it wasn't that hard given her pitiful condition and an almost anorexic physique caused by weeks of starvation.

In just a few seconds, he realized what exactly the man was pointing out to. All of the cuts and scratches she had were fresh, yet she didn't appear to have  _a single scar_ that would look older than a few weeks _._ In other words, unless she was a kunoichi far more exquisite than anybody he knew, she clearly didn't make the impression of someone who had fought a lot in her life. In other words, she was most likely a civilian, possibly a noble one judging by her looks overall.

"What about her chakra?" finally asked the Uchiha, putting the blanket back on her and moving his gaze at the medic.

"Oh—well, she almost doesn't have any right now. It is barely restoring, and her natural reserves are wholly poor which makes me think she wasn't—pardon me, I mean,  _isn't_  a kunoichi. I'm not sure if it's due to everything that happened to her, or if it's her normal state. But, because of the ruined Gate in her head, whether she had a ninja career or not, it's over now since her chakra system won't ever work properly again. At least personally, I can't heal such horrible damage. And I doubt anyone can, not even someone like the Fifth Hokage. I'm sorry, son." He sighed, shaking his head. "This doll is broken beyond repair. Is she your friend?" he asked sorrowfully, glancing at the Uchiha.

Sasuke shook his head dismissively, appearing completely indifferent.

"No, she isn't. I don't know who she is so you may keep your sentiments to yourself."

"Fair enough," the elder ninja pursed his lips disapprovingly, getting up and reaching for his bag. "But still, such a nice girl…  _Tsk_. I can't imagine what monster could've done this to her. Anyhow, If you're planning to stay here until she wakes up, please tell her to use these potions three times a day — they should help her a lot. For now, I need to go. There is nothing I can do for her at this point anyway, but she should live at the very least."

"Right," replied Sasuke quietly, not removing his thoughtful eyes of the girl. There was something enchanting in her looks even in spite of her hideous condition; something almost hypnotic, making him feel those things he hadn't felt in a very long time, namely compassion, care and ruth.

He did realize that she was a mere stranger. One of many he had and will encounter. A really hapless and unlucky one, perhaps tragic even, yet still, she was a nobody to him. And besides, the doctor was right — she was still alive. He wasn't supposed to give a damn about the rest, was he?

"Um… what about money?" came the timid voice from behind.

"...Come again?" murmured Sasuke huskily a few seconds later, genuinely not having paid attention to the question.

The old man gulped, giving a startled glance at the Uchiha crest on Sasuke's shirt, and then stepping back towards the door. Clearly, he mistook his absent and confused tone for an aggressive one. Sometimes the name itself truly speaks for its owner after all.

"Um—nothing—it's nothing, really. I'm sorry. I should go. Goodbye!"

The door closed quietly, leaving the two of them alone in complete silence broken only by the girl's weak breath. Sasuke frowned, sitting on the floor near the bed and hesitantly reaching for her forehead, moving the bluish-black bangs with a soft touch.

To his surprise, there was no cursed seal on her forehead, which made it almost guaranteed in his opinion that she wasn't a Hyūga. He'd heard some stories when he was a child; as far as he was concerned, with the way the Main House of that clan worked, all of them had no choice but to be strong, exceptionally skilled and experienced shinobi. Those who weren't powerful enough received the seal with no exception. And this one really didn't look like a ninja at all. To that end, if she  _were_  a Hyūga, she would've been branded for sure, likely working at their estate as a servant, nothing more. Not to mention that someone like a maid simply couldn't end up this far away from the village...

Sasuke leaned back, putting his palms on the floor behind him and staring at the dirty ceiling of the dark room tiredly. This situation was already way too frustrating, and he absolutely didn't feel like being a part of it anymore. He really wanted to leave this place right away. Technically, he had an excuse to do that — Naruto's message, that is. But… would it be right to leave this poor woman here all alone, with no money, clothes, or even a way to defend herself?

He gritted his teeth, closing his eyes and groaning in irritation caused by this whole ordeal.  _No_ , his own desires didn't matter right now. He  _must_ finish what he'd started. He  _had_  decided to save her, so she was  _his_  responsibility now; at the very least, he had to wait for the girl to regain consciousness and then to escort her home... if she had a home, in the first place.

Besides, he had planned to take some time to rest here anyway, so there was nothing to lose… was there?

His face relaxed a bit, and he almost smiled in relief. So it was settled. The decision was made, there was no return. He was going to stay around… for now.

The ninja jumped up, unclipping his cloak. And as soon as he turned towards the bathroom he paused, hearing a single subdued moan coming from the girl. He glanced at her over his shoulder, frowning. Her tiny frame was beginning to shake; apparently, she was having a fever again.

Sasuke took a deep breath, shaking his head. Fortunately, nobody else was around right now; so much for a merciless killing machine everyone saw in him even up to these days… Willingly babysitting someone he didn't even know. How unsightly.

He put his cloak over her blanket warily, adjusting it right so that she would get somewhat warmer. Then he took the vial the medic had left on the nightstand, pulled the сap out with his teeth, and carefully put it to her puffy dry lips, pouring the dark-green liquid in her throat. The smell of herbs coming from it was rather pleasant, but also quite strong and tart. Perhaps, that's why her nose then wrinkled and she sneezed, a drop of the potion slowly rolling down her chin…

The Uchiha winced, reservedly wiping it with his sleeve and then heading towards the shower. Yes, he definitely was simply exhausted; there was no other explanation to his sudden change of heart. He couldn't still have this childish kindness and compassion hidden somewhere very deep in his soul after all these years... could he?

— **=uWu=** —

The next time she opened her eyes, the girl thought she must be dead, or blind at the very least. The place she found herself in was immersed in the dark, and she couldn't see a single thing around. Was she still alive? Or was this hell?

The bright flash of light came from the window at the opposite side of the room and illuminated it for a split second. She flinched reflectively which she instantly regretted — the familiar pain returned right away, forcing a gasp out of her chest. But, it was also somewhat relieving — if she could feel pain, then she  _was_  alive after all. And she still was able to see too!

The young woman tentatively moved her eyes across the room as they were quickly adjusting to the darkness. It seemed there was nobody around, although she could hear the sound of flowing water somewhere close.

Someone must have brought her to this place, but who? And why?

Very carefully she tried to assume a half-sitting position, gritting her teeth and hissing in an attempt to ignore the awful ache in almost every part of her body. To her surprise, though, she didn't feel that  _bad_ — even her head wasn't hurting nearly as much as it had back in the cell.

_Speaking of the cell…_

She frowned, looking at her bare chest that was partly covered with a simple white blanket and a black piece of fabric on top of it. Back then she was sure that someone — whoever was beating her up — was about to kill her. How could she have ended up here now, wherever it was? Someone must have saved her — there was no chance that those monster had suddenly changed his mind and decided to be nice to her, was there? No, to think so would be a ridiculous idea...

Wincing once more, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself, feeling cold. Her eyes began to fill with tears of gratitude and relief. Whoever had saved her — she owed this person everything, and she was already willing to repay the debt... But, what did she actually have to share? She still didn't remember anything. Not even her name… How could she ever repay for such a kind act?

She flinched as the sound of water suddenly vanished, replaced with some strange noises shortly followed by someone's very quiet footsteps behind the wall to the left. The girl pulled the blanket even further, this time so much that it covered her face fully. But, she then belatedly realized that a person couldn't see through solid objects, so she had to remove the fabric at least of her eyes. It made her feel stupid. Just what was she thinking?

And then she saw  _him_. Instantly regretting that she had decided to give in to her curiosity and peek from under the blanket, the girl froze, her wounded face quickly reddening as they stared at each other silently without moving.

He was a tall, relatively young-looking man who was also completely naked and, judging by his deadpan look, not embarrassed by that fact at all. She could only see one of his eyes as the other one was covered with long strands of his wild bluish-black hair that almost reached his shoulders. The visible eye was onyx-black, peering at her impassively, but not without a small note of curiosity that didn't go unnoticed by the girl. His chest and shoulders were athletic, but not bulky at all; the number of scars on his hands and abdomen (she didn't dare to look below that!) combined with his posture easily gave away that he was an experienced warrior. Had the situation not been this awkward and had the girl not been dumbfounded this much, she might have realized that she actually found him quite attractive…

"Awake, huh?" he finally spoke, making her flinch again, this time with a yelp. His voice was pretty deep but surprisingly soft at the same time — not what she'd expected to hear. "I was sure it would take longer." He turned away, grabbing a towel from a chair and wrapping it around his waist. "Feeling any better?"

"Um… I—," she stuttered, still feeling extremely embarrassed, but mostly by her own condition at this point, as well as her nervousness. "I—I guess…"

"Hn." He walked toward her, making the girl crawl away from him a little as he sat on her couch. "Who are you?"

She looked away, frowning.

"I—I don't know…"

Was this person her mysterious saviour? If that was the case, this was more than just a little embarrassing — now he would probably think she was brain-dead. Well, to be fair, that probably wasn't too far from the truth given that she couldn't remember a single thing, not even her name…

"What  _do_  you know?" he asked after a short pause.

She bit her lower lip as it began to tremble, tears coming up to her eyes once again.

"I—I'm sorry—I don't know—don't remember…," she muttered quietly, her voice dropping down to a whisper by the end of the sentence.

"We'll see about that."

The girl froze as he leaned forward, carefully grabbing her chin and forcing her to look into his eye. What was he doing? Was he going to hurt her as those people had? She hoped he wouldn't…

She then yelped again as his iris flashed, becoming bright, bloody-red, the bizarre pattern in it swirling and pulling her into some kind of a surreal vortex the next moment. Surprisingly, it didn't last at all. To her, it felt like just a few seconds, not more than that, and she was already staring back at him with her scared eyes wide-open, afraid to even breathe, let alone blink. His expression, on the contrary, was perfectly calm, yet a bit confused. The young man frowned as he slowly removed his hand.

"You really don't, huh… Looks like you've lost all of your memories," he uttered thoughtfully, moving away from her a bit.

"H-How do you know?" she babbled in a shaky voice, still shocked by the frightening image of his burning eye.

"It's none of your concern," he snapped, though it didn't sound any rough to her — more like a mere statement of a fact.

"S-Sorry," she whispered, looking away shamefully. He really must've felt annoyed by this barrage of questions...

He sighed, giving her a slightly arrogant look.

"Don't be. I should be the one sorry for you, not the other way around."

She swallowed hard, still afraid to meet his gaze.

"Um—excuse me, but... Are you the person—the one who saved me?" she asked timidly, realizing that he was probably right — she must be truly miserable in his eyes.

"Yeah," came the simple reply.

"Oh—!" She smiled brightly. "Thank you so much…! Um—may I know your name?" she asked cautiously, really wanting to know the answer.

"For someone who is barely alive, you sure talk a lot," he suddenly commented, sounding a bit caustic.

She lowered her eyes, once again realizing that he was right.

"Uh—I'm sorry…"

"Hn." He turned his head towards the window, staying silent for a while as she didn't dare to look at him again. "Sasuke."

"Um...?"

"That's my name."

"Oh—I see!" She beamed, ignoring the pain her happy smile was causing to her face. "W-Where are we, by the way?"

" _Where_? Even if I told you, would it matter? Not like you'd be able to remember any place whatsoever," he replied with a hint of sarcasm, which made her smile vanish right away, replaced with a dismal, embarrassed expression.

"I—I'm sorry. You're right," she uttered, blushing as her stomach growled all of sudden.

"Hn. Not the brightest one, are you?" He got up, walking to the opposite side of the room. She couldn't see what he was doing, but a minute later he returned with a small wooden tray, bringing a huge piece of bread, a few slices of ham and chopped tomato to her. "You must be hungry," he stated, putting the plate right next to her.

The young woman's eyes widened, and she almost began to drool at the wonderful smell of food. Perhaps, it objectively wasn't that great of a dish, but right now, to her, it looked better than the finest feast in the world!

"Oh—oh, thank you so much!" She grabbed the bread right away, chewing insatiably despite all the pain every motion was causing to her. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until now.

Sasuke watched as she consumed everything in a matter of seconds. The girl then looked around, apparently in search for a napkin to wipe her mouth, but then hesitantly doing it with her hand. He wondered what even made her look for a napkin given that her face and lips were perfectly clean. A habit she'd forgotten, perhaps?

"Alright. Listen to me now," the serious tone of his voice pulled her out of her bliss as she looked back at him again perplexedly, suppressing a satisfied hiccup. "Technically, my business with you is done. I wanted to ensure that you would survive, and according to your doctor, you will. I guess you should be fine in just a few days. I'll be staying with you, but only until then."

She nodded slowly, understanding Sasuke's reasoning perfectly, though unable to ignore the fact that his words made her feel deeply sad for some reason. Maybe it was because he was currently her only tie to this world — the only person she knew… well, at least to some extent. He was her saviour, and the first person she'd met after her memory had been wiped out. He treated her nicely even though clearly reluctantly. Naturally, she didn't want him to leave so soon. And although she totally felt like accepting his will and obeying it, she also couldn't find a rational reason not to at least try to do something about it.

"Um… Sasuke-san—"

"Just Sasuke." She nodded.

"Sasuke… I—I understand it is very insolent of me to ask, but—m-may I please—if you don't mind, of course—accompany you—w-wherever you are going to?" He gave her such a confused and incredulous stare that it made her blush again, feeling as if she'd just said something incredibly silly. But, she found the courage to continue,

"It's just that I—I don't have anywhere to go, you see? Nor—nor anybody to return to. In truth, now that—that I've forgotten everything, I don't have...," she lowered her eyes somberly, "I have nothing at all." She bit her lip, desperately trying not to sob at the suffocating feeling of loneliness that suddenly began to eat her from the inside as she spoke,

"At—at the same time, you—I owe you my life. I—I know that my life probably isn't worth that much, b-but… Maybe—just… maybe you wouldn't mind having a servant? I—I think I know how to cook… And I can clean your clothes too. And—"

"Enough talk," he interrupted her abruptly, ignoring her hopeful eyes full of tears peering at him pleadingly. "Now drink that stuff on your nightstand and get some sleep. You need to rest." He got up from her bed and walked out of the room without looking back, closing the door.

The girl hugged herself under the blanket, feeling cold again. All of a sudden, she felt exactly like she had back in the cage — as if her life was in someone else's hands, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Except this time, it was someone she didn't want to leave her… no matter what.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Rejected**

When she opened her eyes, it was impossible to determine how many hours had passed since the conversation with Sasuke, and the young man himself was nowhere to be seen or heard. The girl rubbed her head, yawning sweetly and feeling maybe a bit too cosy considering her body's condition and everything that had happened. Seeing how the dim light was breaking through the curtain from the outside, she ventured to guess it was daytime. The rain was still pouring steadily behind the window, which was likely the reason why it seemed more like twilight at the moment. It made the young woman want to fall asleep once more, especially since she was seemingly alone in the room.

But, she then collected all of her willpower and decided that enough time had already been wasted. Although her mind was still a bit clouded, the dark-haired girl remembered clearly that she had asked the man who'd saved her to let her become his follower. She also remembered that he hadn't given a clear answer. Even though he had agreed to stay with her until she would recover, somehow it seemed dubious that Sasuke would approve of her 'playing for time' like some wily fox, staying in her bed longer than necessary just to keep him around. Though, she had to admit that the idea was really tempting. His presence made her felt secure and safe, and now that he was elsewhere, the feeling was also gone, replaced with anxiety and cold.

Not to mention that Sasuke was currently the only person she trusted as the entire world besides him was completely alien for the oblivious girl. At least that man wouldn't hurt her… or so she hoped anyway.

That's why she slowly yet vigorously threw the blanket and the cloak off herself, sitting on the bed and grabbing her temples warily with a gasp the next second. The dizziness was still pretty strong, and so was the headache, but she stubbornly moved again just as soon as vertigo backed off a little. The girl hung her legs out of bed, studying her own body then. Her eyes widened at the sight — frankly, her shape was downright awful, if not shocking. Even not taking multiple scars and cuts into account, her frame was just  _too_ skinny, resembling a skeleton now that her ribs were bulging out from under the skin in a way that just couldn't be called healthy.

 _That must be why Sasuke said he knew I'd be hungry,_  she thought vexedly, studying her pale scarred arm which now slightly resembled that of a child.  _I wonder for how long they'd kept me there before he came..._  
  
Still feeling a bit cold, she wrapped the cloak around herself which made her somewhat more comfortable. As the girl attempted to get up, her head instantly began to spin again, and she yelped, losing her balance and falling on her knees heavily. It was the moment she regretted having eaten a few hours ago. Her stomach made a flip and she puked right away, covering the wooden floor with some nasty green liquid — the potion Sasuke had given her, most likely.

However, in spite of the unsightly circumstances, she suddenly smiled, wiping her mouth with her hand. It wasn't all that bad after all — the good news was that at least there was no blood in the puddle, which already was a good sign itself. And she felt like she could deal with the rest… probably. Panting, the girl slowly got up, holding onto the wall and the bed's edge. Now standing, she eyed herself critically once more, trying to estimate her state. And the more she did it, the worse she found herself feeling. All of a sudden, the amnesiac woman felt so dirty that she only wanted one thing — a good shower that would wipe out every trace of her previous captivity and the atrocities that man had done to her. Surely, she remembered almost nothing aside from the very last torture session. Yet still, it wasn't hard to imagine what things a mind that twisted could've come up with...

That's why now, standing there on her shaky slender legs, the former prey of the maniac was desperately fighting the urge to cry and scream. For the first time, she realized that her amnesia was truly a gift, no less. Because even without remembering a thing, she felt  _tainted. Befouled. Defiled_. She had no idea who she was, but some inner feeling was telling her that it was very unnatural for her to feel this way. Perhaps so much that it was currently disturbing her more than anything else, more than even her rather questionable future. And if even such a tiny shade of the whole ordeal was bothering her this much…

"I guess… it means… at least I wasn't a slut… nor a sloven… I hope…," she murmured to herself through heavy breaths, unable to hold back a weak chuckle. Honestly, what was she even thinking given her current position and everything else? It didn't matter who she had been  _before,_ just as it was irrelevant what would happen to her tomorrow. What mattered the most was who she was meant to be  _now_.

That's why she then very carefully, step by step, slow as a turtle, reached the door, putting her hand on its rusty metallic handle. Staggering, she opened it and tried to walk out of the room, but then stumbled over the slightly sticking piece of parquet and fell once again with a yelp. This time it was much worse than before, her entire body aching horribly as she hit the floor; however, the girl gritted her teeth and clenched her fists right away, suppressing a painful moan.

She slowly got up again and continued making her way through the narrow corridor, holding onto walls and whatever else she could reach. It seemed there were only two rooms on this floor aside from the one she'd just left: one was locked, and the other one was…

The girl smiled weakly as the door opened without any resistance, revealing a relatively clean, though not a very spacious bathroom.

"Just what the doctor ordered…," she whispered, looking forward to fixing herself… well, as much as she could.

— **=uWu=** —

"Ya sure this what ya wanna get, pal?" asked the kid, or rather a teenager probably just a few years younger than himself, as he looked at the Uchiha sneeringly. "Not tryna judge ya but this stuff's actually for girls…"

Sasuke's face remained blank, although it was quite difficult for him not to react to the vendor's stupidity.

"I  _am_  buying it for a girl," replied the ninja patiently, putting a few coins on the stall.

"Huh? Ain't ya too young to be a dad? Or she's your sis'?" the owner of the store smirked teasingly, locking his hands behind his head under the wide straw hat as he laid back in his chair.

This time the shinobi closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.  _Must not kill… Must not kill. Calm down. Morons deserve to live too. You handled Naruto; this is nothing compared to him._

"This is none of your business. And if you keep asking questions, I'll just take it for free," he deadpanned.

The boy snorted.

"Ha! Like anyone would give a shit. Nobody buys this stuff anyway, been in that box for years," the boy rolled his eyes with a clearly dissatisfied expression. "I'm dying to boredom here, man. I swear this shitty town's all about old geezers and their ladies that look even older! Sorry for butting in, thing's I haven't seen a girl since forever, y'know?"

Sasuke frowned. As useless and dumb as this guy might be, perhaps he'd just told him something valuable. If he was saying the truth and there were indeed little to no women in this settlement, then the news about his mysterious companion would spread in no time. That could make it very difficult for them to remain in that house…  _Maybe we'll have to head off to Konoha rather sooner than later,_ he thought grimly, packing up the sunflower-coloured summer dress and a few other things he'd bought.

"Thanks," he replied reservedly, turning away and beginning to walk out of the stuffy room.

"Oy, man, hold on a second!" suddenly said the teen, leaning forward. The Uchiha paused, glancing at him over his shoulder.

"What else?"

"If ya really have a girl somewhere around, shouldn't leave her alone for too long," he muttered pointedly and looked around, as if afraid that someone might overhear them.

The Uchiha's eyes narrowed dangerously as he asked:

"And why is that?"

The teen gulped and giggled weirdly, now looking downright nervous.

"Uh, well—there are some guys out there who'd like to catch a rare bird, y'know what I'm sayin'?"

Sasuke definitely didn't fully understand what the brat was implying, but he realized it was nothing good. Fortunately, he had nothing to worry about. The Uchiha wasn't reckless enough to leave that bird without some kind of protection. For now, she was perfectly safe.

"Some guys?" he drawled casually. "So there is an active mafia in this place. That sounds scary."

"Kinda," the boy smiled apologetically, scratching his nape and accidentally making the hat slip on his nose. "Can't tell much more, my boss's one of 'em, but… see," he looked around nervously and lowered his voice, "This place's fucked up, man. Rumours are they got a brothel not far away from here, and a huge ass collection of sex slaves." He sighed, shaking his head. "I kinda wish I had a chance to get the hell out, but I can't, I gotta take care of my mom," said the boy, lowering his eyes sadly. "There's a lot of various underground shit going on. You're a ninja, aren't ya? Well, there are a few of your kind too, and they all work for the same guy, the one who controls everything here."

"Curious," replied Sasuke, though not sounding interested at all as he turned away. "I'll see what I can do."

"W-Wha—? What  _you_  can do? What do you mean?!" the teen exclaimed, but the Uchiha ignored his question, leaving the store silently.

Once he was outside, the shinobi looked around himself, studying the narrow street. It'd been raining without pause since early morning, but even so, there were enough people around to say it was pretty crowded. Surrounded by countless nondescript workshops, eateries and depots, it was naturally confusing to navigate even for someone like Sasuke. Frankly, in a place like that, it wasn't any surprise that the settlement was ruled by some criminal syndicate. Oddly, it reminded the Uchiha of the town they had visited during their very first mission as Team Seven. The memory of the fight against Zabuza even made his lips curve in a nostalgic grin for a moment...

But then his face darkened, and Sasuke began to stride towards his temporary refuge. The sad truth was that he had just lied to the boy — there was no way for him to do anything to help these people anytime soon. Sadly, it wasn't a matter of power at all — if he wanted to, he could easily destroy the entire city with a single jutsu, of course. However, a work like this was a lot more delicate than that and required time and patience above everything else. And now he was under pressure of both Naruto's message as well as the fact that the girl he'd saved would soon be hunted. Considering what the kid from the clothing store had just told him, and assuming that the doctor who had healed the girl was unlikely to keep his mouth completely shut, they already had gained some unnecessary attention... Soon it would grow into a problem, without a doubt.

That's why no matter how he tried to approach the matter in his head, the only plausible decision right now was to leave the place as soon as possible. Perhaps, he would return one day and finish what he… well, hadn't really started, but wanted to do nonetheless.

As he walked into the house a few minutes later, the old lady concierge didn't pay any attention to his presence, resting peacefully under his genjutsu since yesterday. So the Uchiha headed upstairs, directly to his quarters. Stopping next to the closed door that led to the bedroom he frowned, putting his hand on his sword's hilt warily.

Something was off. He could clearly sense somebody moving inside, and it wasn't the clone he'd left to protect the girl while she was in her sleep. On the other hand, the clone hadn't dispelled either — otherwise, Sasuke would've received its memories already. Besides, he could smell something that hadn't been there before. It was…  _food_?

Completely dumbfounded as he had no rational explanation to this situation, the Uchiha opened the door, stepping inside. And then he froze, stunned by the sight.

The room now looked much more comfortable and lively than before; most of the broken furniture was carefully placed in its corner; the trash was nowhere to be seen; both beds were neatly made… And the most shocking thing of all was the girl who was now standing near the desk, clumsily chopping the vegetables she'd apparently found in the old fridge.

As the door closed loudly behind her back she flinched, dropping the knife and quickly turning around to give the Uchiha a frightened look. But then, recognizing him the next second, she visibly relaxed, putting her hand on her chest and exhaling loudly.

"Oh—Sasuke… I'm sorry, I was afraid—I thought it was someone else." She lowered her eyes shamefully, biting her lip.

The ninja peered at her searchingly, not saying anything for a while. She was wearing a white bathrobe and nothing else as far as he could see. Her hair was now clean and tied up in a ponytail that reached below her waist. It also turned out that her skin was even paler than he'd initially thought, now that the dirt and gore were gone.

His gaze then slid to the table. There were a few dirty dishes — most likely emptied by herself, which was a good thing since she really needed to eat, but also more than a couple of full ones. Had she prepared them for him?

"You dropped the knife," was all he said before he proceeded to the bathroom, realizing that he needed a break to comprehend it all.

As soon as he was inside, he quickly dispelled the shadow clone that had been staying back in the bedroom the whole time, and also released the genjutsu covering the area, preventing anyone from seeing said clone. Its memories instantly filled the Uchiha's head, making his expression do a few quick changes between astonishment, anger and amusement. He closed his eyes, trying to sort out the dose of information he'd just received.

The scene of her awakening was nothing special, as expected. But, something curious had occurred shortly. Something that made him have second thoughts regarding this poor woman's capabilities, as he'd until now imagined she had none.

First of all, she didn't just wait for him to return, instead deciding to do things by herself, without any aid.

She failed miserably, but even so, she got up and somehow continued trying. Another failure as she attempted to leave the room — just what was that idiot thinking, going out all alone in her condition?! — and then another stubborn comeback. No whining, no tears, no complaints. Her resolve combined with her recklessness was something Sasuke found admirable as it instantly reminded him of the certain blond idiot who never gave up too…

She then spent almost an hour in the bathroom, apparently taking care of herself and her looks. He had to admit, the result was impressive. Although her face was still quite messed up, now she at least didn't look like a savage from the jungle, the noble features he'd noticed in her features before now being even more apparent.

And to top it all, she'd taken care of the cooking duty, making food not just for herself, but for him as well. That was also unexpected and a bit confusing because had Sasuke been in her shoes right now, he would've eaten everything raw without even thinking of cooking anything, let alone doing it for someone else. Whoever this woman was, she most likely had been raised up pretty strictly and she was definitely a selfless person, he could already see that…

Sasuke washed his face, taking off the gloves and looking at his reflection in the mirror. His hair had also grown quite long and wild during his travel, but he decided that he liked it this way; his face looked pale and a bit tired, but other than that he was probably fine. The white shirt showing from under his black jacket was a bit dirty, but he could live with that; he was a ninja, after all. Things like that didn't matter at all.

All of a sudden, he frowned angrily. This woman… She kept interfering with his plans again and again. Originally he had intended to let her serve him in his journey as she'd requested, and at the same time, he would try to help the poor girl remember her origins and her homeland, or at least find a decent place to stay before they would part. But now… Seeing how self-dependent she turned out to be, as well as how hard she seemed ready to work in order to achieve the things she wanted to get, and perhaps more important than anything, ultimately succeeding at it…

He had changed his mind. And he was going to tell her just that without further due.

— **=uWu=** —

When he showed up from the bathroom, she had already finished preparing food, but the girl knew that she was barely prepared  _herself_. Now that she was fully conscious and self-aware, and her saviour was right in front of her, what was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to act? Seeing his sullen and thoughtful face, she couldn't decide if she had to try to please him, or maybe he just didn't care about whatever she would do, lost in thought?

She took a deep breath, trying to calm down as he came close to the table, studying its contents briefly. She had only managed to boil some rice, chop various greens and vegetables she had found in a box, and slice the remains of the meat he had given her yesterday. Perhaps, she did it a bit sloppily because her hands still weren't fully obeying her, but she hoped it would satisfy him. Though, considering the way he looked at her now, it became clear that it wouldn't…

"You did it all by yourself," he said calmly, to which she hesitantly nodded, afraid to make a sound. "Shortly after you barely managed to get out of your bed, even throwing up and falling a few times on your way. What made you try so hard?" Sasuke asked directly, looking into her baffled eyes impassively.

The girl blinked, astonished by his sudden statements. How could he possibly know these details about her recent struggle when he had just returned…?

"I—I wanted to prove that I could serve you well…," she babbled, blushing.

"Hn." He took a seat, picking chopsticks from the table but not touching the food yet, still eyeing her attentively. "Is that really all you want? To serve me like some slave? Not very impressive."

She swallowed, lowering her eyes in grief.

"W-Well, it's not like I have that many options… And I'd rather serve you, the person who saved me, than go out there alone and be a stranger to the world," she uttered quietly, afraid to look at him.

Sasuke snorted, taking a piece of meat and putting it in his mouth, chewing unhurriedly.

"I don't want a slave," he finally replied after what seemed like a small eternity, picking another piece from the plate. "I gave it some thought and decided to decline that offer of yours. You are free to go."

She froze, feeling chills going down her spine as the harsh words reached her ears. This was not what she'd expected to receive for all the effort she'd put into trying to prove herself to him; then again, she realized that he wasn't obliged to deal with her any longer than necessary, of course. Not that there was any necessity of the kind, to begin with. He had already done more than she could ever hope to repay for…

"However," he suddenly continued, making her raise her head and look at him in perplexedly, "There is one thing  _I_  can offer you. You don't have to accept it; frankly, I'll be glad if you decline." He paused again, chewing and then taking a sip of tea.

"W-What is it, Sasuke?" she asked carefully, clasping her hands nervously behind her back.

"Seeing as you can already clean and cook, I could leave right now since you obviously can take care of yourself. But, it doesn't feel right to leave you as you are, especially given that you have no idea where to go and who you are. What I'm offering is both a purpose and a way to protect yourself. Now," he gave her a low-key challenging look, "Want to become a kunoichi?"

She blinked in confusion a few times. To say she was taken by surprise would be to say nothing.

"A kunoichi…," she murmured, frowning. "As in a ninja? Like you, Sasuke?"

"Yeah… a ninja," he nodded, looking away and taking some rice from the pot.

"Um… I'm not sure if I can, b-but it doesn't sound bad," she said and smiled timidly, looking away and imagining herself wearing something similar to what Sasuke wore, carrying a sword or some other weapon. The idea actually seemed quite fascinating to her!

"In this case, I'm gonna train you. You won't serve me, but you will be my apprentice, and I expect you to work as hard as you can and to follow my instructions thoroughly. If you don't want to die, that is."

"Oh!" She beamed, bouncing on her toes and locking her hands in front of herself, now more in excitement rather than out of nervousness. "I am ready!"

"Don't be so quick to answer," he replied, clearly not sharing her enthusiasm. "Your case is very special, so I have to warn you about a few things. First, your chakra system is screwed, so it's likely that you won't ever get to learn any decent techniques aside from taijutsu — hand-to-hand combat — as well as utilizing steel arms. I'll teach you the basics of ninjutsu, but you must keep in mind that things that are easy even for children in a ninja academy, they will be difficult for you to perform, maybe even impossible. Besides, your body can't be healed with medical ninjutsu, which means that you might die to a trivial wound in any fight. Are you sure you want to go this way?"

"Yes," she replied without thinking twice, "I do. I'd rather die fighting than end up in someone's possession again," the girl said passionately, clenching her fists. "P-Please tell me, what shall I do? I promise to work as hard as I can!"

"Hn." Sasuke turned away — she wasn't sure if her eyes were lying to her, but she could swear she'd just seen the tiniest smile on his face. "First of all, go change—I brought you some clothes," he nodded in the direction of the bag he'd left on the bed. "Those aren't exactly suitable for a ninja. I didn't think you would want to become one anyway. Still, they should do for a while."

Her eyes widened in surprise as she limped to the bed, grabbed the bag and took a fine yellowish dress out, giving it a slightly mesmerized stare.

"As I said, we'll start with the basics. First of all, you're gonna learn transformation jutsu. Until we find out who you are, you need to be able to hide your identity by changing your looks while we're in public."

"In public...?" the girl echoed absently, still shocked by the sudden gift. Just how much more kind could this man be to her...?

"Yeah. Tomorrow we're leaving this place. We're going to Konoha, my home village. I need to see a friend over there."

"Konoha…," she whispered to herself, biting her lip and smiling in excitement. So they were going to travel together...

Whoever she had been before, she really liked this new life so far!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Hidden Tears Village  
**

"Hold on tight. We're descending soon," commanded Sasuke, touching the feathery neck of the huge hawk they were riding. "Garuda, lower down near that lake. I don't want the watchers on the wall to notice us and make a fuss," he added. The bird didn't visibly react to his words, instead gradually beginning to decrease the altitude. His newfound apprentice gasped behind his back, her hands locking even more tightly on his waist as the direction of the flight suddenly changed.

"D-Do you often travel this way, Sasuke?" she muttered, finally deciding to break the silence that had lasted for at least an hour by now.

"Almost never. This is actually your fault," replied the ninja, to her surprise sounding complacent, almost playful.

She gulped, staring warily down at the quickly approaching woods that now looked especially unwelcoming, covered by the shadow of the twilight, and wondering what could be the reason to Sasuke's state. This was new — until now he'd always been rather grim and moody, or maybe it's just that so it seemed to her. Somehow, she had a feeling that he seldom was in a nice mood. Maybe he was just excited to come home for once?

"M-My fault?" she asked carefully, raising her head and looking at his nape. "H-How come?"

"Well, I figured you wouldn't be able to travel a hundred miles on your feet," he reasoned, once again sounding surprisingly placid. "At least not this swiftly anyway."

The girl looked away, staring blankly at the evening sky for a while.

"I—I guess you're right," she whispered, smiling hesitantly.

Naturally, he was. She had spent almost all of her chakra and physical energy on the only training session they'd managed to do before departing from that sullen town. That's why the first half of the flight was pretty much uneventful as she was simply napping on his back. But, to her surprise, now she felt like she'd almost completely recovered, and even her wounds almost didn't bother her at all anymore. The only thing causing real discomfort at the moment was hunger. But, she was getting used to the idea that she always wanted to eat, and that it would remain this way until her body would become healthy again. If it ever had been, in the first place — she had no idea.

The beginner kunoichi flinched as they finally dived into the forest, shortly landing near the shore of a tiny lake overgrown with mud and water lilies. They both got off the huge bird, and she noticed Sasuke gently patting the hawk's head with a barely notable smile playing on his lips.

"Thanks, Garuda," he said warmly, stepping away. The animal pecked his hand lightly in return before chirping loudly and disappearing in a puff of white smoke.

Sasuke then turned towards his follower, his smile instantly vanishing. "How are you feeling?"

"Uh… Fine, I suppose," she replied unsurely, stretching her limbs and rubbing her slightly numb neck.

"Do you think you can walk a couple miles?"

"Yes," she said and nodded, this time sounding more firm. "I also can—I think I can use transformation jutsu again."

"Don't use it until I tell you to. You can't keep it up for too long, don't forget. And we still have to get through the village to reach my place. Let's go," he turned away and began walking unhurriedly in between the trees.

The girl quickly followed Sasuke, surprised by her own unexpected agility — now jumping over thick roots and logs wasn't any hard for her, and it wasn't tiring either. Maybe it was the potion she'd taken back there, but the girl noticed that her body sure was restoring unnaturally quickly. Not that she could complain, of course.

"This village… Is it big?" she asked curiously, grateful that the man wasn't striding too fast — his pace was just enough for her to keep up, almost as if he knew her limits precisely.

"Who knows?" he shrugged, thinking for a few seconds. "It got a lot smaller in my absence before, and I haven't been there for a few months."

She sighed at the vague response, feeling like there was some story behind it, yet not brave enough to push on the matter. If he didn't feel like telling her right away, then perhaps she wasn't supposed to know — that was the idea she'd decided to stick with when it came to this mysterious person's life. The last thing the girl wanted him to think was that she didn't respect his privacy.

"Is it bigger than that town—the one where you brought me to?" she asked then, feeling uncomfortable in the silence and the darkness of the forest.

"Yes, much bigger than that." She frowned at his words.

"B-But, why do you call it a village then? Isn't it more like—uh… a city?"

He didn't reply for a few seconds, unknown to her puzzled by this childishly simple question.

"Originally it  _was_  but a village. Nowadays, it's more of a tribute to the old tradition, I believe. Every shinobi settlement is called a Hidden Village."

She nodded in understanding, deciding to stop bugging Sasuke with her questions. She already knew that the place they were approaching was called Hidden Leaf Village — most likely because of these deep woods surrounding it. Every tree around appeared to be at least a few centuries old, having grown up so high that she could barely see the bits of sky through their distant majestic crowns. It was a truly breathtaking sight, so it would be natural for it to become the symbol of these people…

Eventually, Sasuke stopped, and she almost bumped into his back automatically, deep in her thought.

"Someone is coming," he uttered quietly, though not seeming tensed up at all. "Shapeshift. Now."

She nodded quickly, successively forming Dog, Boar and Ram seals with her slightly trembling fingers.  _Henge no Jutsu!_ A poof of smoke surrounded her, and then the girl sighed in relief, seeing as the skin on her hands now appeared to be perfectly smooth and completely healed. Her hair was also shorter, bright ginger in colour. Her clothes hadn't changed, though — it was still the same light dress Sasuke had given her. Unfortunately, she had yet to learn more complex types of transformations…

"Who is there? Show yourself!" a young male voice shouted out, sending shivers down her spine and making the girl anxiously look around in search for its source.

"We're not hiding," replied Sasuke calmly, remaining in his position motionless.

The bushes a few yards ahead of them stirred, and then a male ninja dressed in a dark-green vest showed up, accompanied by a red-haired kunoichi and a ninja with round-shaped glasses who jumped off the nearest tree, landing just next to his fellows.

"Who the hell—oh—oh-h!" the ninja who was apparently the leader of the team paused as his eyes stopped on the elder ninja's face, apparently recognizing him. "It's been a while, Sasuke-san! You're just in time."

"It's Sasuke, I told you," he replied in a bored tone. "And  _why_  am I just in time? Naruto sent me an urgent message, but he never specified what happened."

The teen's face darkened a bit, and he lowered his eyes sadly.

"Sorry, I'm afraid it's not my position to tell you. Nii-chan will explain everything to you in person."

Listening carefully to their conversation, the girl decided to slowly step from behind Sasuke's back, studying the person he was talking to. It was a brown-haired boy, not older than sixteen, wearing a blue scarf on his neck. The others probably were his peers, but they clearly didn't share their comrade's enthusiasm judging by the strained glances they were shooting at Sasuke, evidently feeling uneasy in his presence. She almost flinched when the boy's eyes stopped on her, his expression becoming slightly curious and puzzled at the same time. Quickly following the direction of his gaze, Sasuke said calmly yet firmly:

"Don't worry about her. She's just a civilian."

"Oh… well, if you say so," drawled the boy, making a dismissive gesture to his teammates who visibly relaxed right away. "Mind if I ask what's the name of this beautiful lady?" he asked with a cheeky smirk.

"You don't have to know it," said Sasuke abruptly, making a step forward. "We're going to the village."

"Oh, of course!" The teen smiled apologetically, raising his hands. "Didn't mean to get in your way, it's just that we were sent on this stupid patrol duty as our punishment—"

"As  _your_  punishment, Ko-no-ha-ma-ru!" complained the red-haired girl, putting her hands on her sides.

"Right, right," the boy chuckled awkwardly, scratching his nape. "Anyway, glad to see you back, Sasuke! Maybe  _you_  will manage to pull his head out of his ass at last. See ya!" They bowed respectfully and disappeared in a flash, apparently performing Body Flicker Jutsu. The young woman already knew about it thanks to Sasuke who had promised to teach her this very thing soon.

"Those ninjas—they seem to respect you a lot," she said after some time, following the shinobi as he continued to walk forward.

"Hn. They're just kids," he said indifferently, though it seemed to her that she caught the slightest note of embarrassment in his tone. "At least Konoha seems to be fine, seeing as they let the likes of him patrol the area." He paused, thinking for a few seconds and then adding quietly, apparently more to himself than to her, "The problem must be Naruto then."

She didn't say anything, wondering who could this Naruto be. Throughout the few very brief casual conversations she'd had with Sasuke, he'd mentioned this name twice, and it seemed like it was the very reason they were going to Hidden Leaf Village in such a hurry.

"We're approaching the gates," he said a few minutes later, ripping her out of her thought. "Whoever talks to you, don't open your mouth unless I tell you to. Is it clear?" She looked at his back perplexedly, a bit surprised by how harsh and rough Sasuke became all of sudden. Not because it hurt her feelings or anything like that, but rather wondering what could've made his attitude change so dramatically and so abruptly. She realized she was most likely out of the picture right now, not even understanding the situation at all, but seeing him getting so gloomy was a bad sign, she realized this much. So far he hadn't made the impression of someone who was easy to lose his temper.

"Of course," she replied obediently, looking away and praying silently for the situation, whatever it could possibly be, to get resolved peacefully soon.

— **=uWu=** —

As they finally walked into the territory of the village through its main entrance, Sasuke merely nodded to the gatekeeper who appeared to be incredibly bored and sleepy. But, as soon as he noticed the Uchiha he almost jumped up, bowing his head respectfully.

"Welcome back, Sasuke-sama!"

The young man winced, turning away. These honorifics really annoyed him to no end, but it seemed it couldn't be helped. Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura had done a great job restoring his reputation, making everyone believe that he was a hero just like their future Hokage. And although he realized that, to some extent, he actually was what they saw in him now, Sasuke didn't really feel like enjoying this fame and revere everyone was giving him in Konoha. Not that he was too ashamed of his former gruesome intentions at this point, but unlike all these people, he  _knew_  the truth. He  _knew_  he could've killed all of them long ago had Naruto not managed to stop him at Valley of the End almost three years ago. That's why he felt that, at the very least, he didn't quite deserve such attitude...

Fortunately, there were so many people on the streets of the village this evening that nobody paid any attention to him and his female accomplice as they were moving towards the Uchiha district. Sasuke's glanced at the girl briefly, studying her temporary disguise.

A bit taller than her real body, she now was a ginger woman slightly older than himself, with dark-grey eyes and multiple freckles on her tanned face. He knew she had copied this appearance of a seller from the bakery they'd visited yesterday before departing. And he had to admit that the copy was almost uncanny, clearly indicating a talent of chakra control...

She didn't notice his gaze, looking around with an awed expression, though seeming to feel uncomfortable with so many people around. And seeing her clueless expression, Sasuke felt a bit disappointed. In truth, he'd hoped that Konoha would bring back some of her memories in the event she'd ever visited the village before. But apparently, such luck was too much to ask. The girl either had never been to this place before or at the very least it didn't trigger any memories to pop in her head.

"Hey! Sasuke, is that you?!" He turned his head towards the direction the voice came from, almost instantly spotting the blonde girl with a long ponytail, wearing an elegant purple dress. She was standing next to a pale black-haired guy — he didn't know who he was, but the face seemed a tad familiar.

"Ino," he muttered, stopping as the girl and her companion made their way towards him through the tight crowd.

"Hello to you as well!" she smirked, coming close and surprising the Uchiha with a tight hug, not even leaving him a chance to protest. "It's been a while! We all missed you," she uttered softly.

"Yeah," he muttered as she backed off, looking at him happily. "I've been busy."

"I know, I know… We weren't chilling here either. Actually, you picked just the right time to come back."

"I didn't pick it," he replied, meeting the slightly suspicious yet at the same time curious eyes of the Yamanaka's silent companion. "Naruto asked me to come."

"Oh," Ino's face went dark as she looked away, biting her lip. "I should've known."

"What's going on?" asked the Uchiha, frowning. "You're the second person to tell me I'm back just in time. In time for what?"

"In time to help Naruto," she sighed sadly, hugging herself. "Ever since the accident, he—" To Sasuke's further annoyance Ino stopped, biting her lip as it began to tremble.

"He hasn't been the same," the blonde's follower came to the rescue, making Sasuke's grim gaze slid at him, "At first he tried hard to keep going as usual, but the further time goes, the more locked up he becomes. We haven't seen him leave his place this week at all."

Now the Uchiha realized that something truly was horribly wrong. For Naruto of all people to behave in such an introverted matter… Something awful must have happened to his friend.

"What's the accident you just mentioned?" he asked patiently, suppressing his irritation as he noticed the girl's pupilless turquoise eyes getting wet.

"His fiancee died," said the pale ninja simply.

And these three words made the dreary puzzle complete itself instantly in Sasuke's head.

"She didn't  _die_!" suddenly exclaimed Ino, clenching her fists and looking at the guy angrily. "We don't know what happened, Sai!"

"Naruto is sure she did," replied the person named Sai neutrally, putting his hands in his pockets. "He must know better than anyone else with his capabilities."

"No! She's not dead until we've seen her body. Anything could've happened," said the blonde kunoichi stubbornly, sniffling and looking away.

"Tell me what exactly happened," demanded Sasuke, looking at Sai.

"A classic case," said the ninja impassively, "She didn't come back from a mission. The search teams the Sixth sent found nothing. Naruto can't sense her chakra anymore either."

"H-He…," Ino stuttered, "Sakura told me—he said that—that he could feel it at first, somewhere far away, too weak for him to trace it… But then it just disappeared completely one day," finished the kunoichi in a trembling voice.

Sasuke lowered his eyes, now understanding why Sai insisted that the girl was dead. If Naruto of all people couldn't sense her chakra, then there was no hope.

All of a sudden he felt a light touch on his shoulder, reminding him that their time was running out.

"I see," said the Uchiha calmly, looking at Ino. "You said Naruto is home, is he?"

"Uh—yeah," the girl nodded slowly, wiping her eyes, "You really should go pay him a visit as soon as possible."

"I'll do it in the morning. We need to get some rest first."

" _We?_ " asked the kunoichi, raising her eyebrow. "You didn't come here alone?"

"It's none of your business," said Sasuke, trying to cover his follower with his back, but it was already too late — Ino's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed the young woman in disguise. "Gosh, Sasuke! Is that your girlfriend? What is your name?" she squeezed out a tiny smile at the other girl who then took a step backwards, baffled, embarrassed and scared at the same time. "Hm-m, your chakra doesn't seem familiar… You're not from around here, are you?"

"She isn't my girlfriend. And we are  _really tired_ , Ino. We're leaving."

"Fine, fine," the blonde smiled warmly, patting his forearm reassuringly. "You'll have to tell me about her later. And don't even hope to slip away from me!"

"Sure thing," murmured the Uchiha, taking his own companion's hand into his and walking away from her and Sai.

"Hey, Sasuke! We can tell Naruto that you're back if you want. We'll be passing by his place anyway, so…"

The ninja stopped for a moment. The only reason why he couldn't go straight to his friend's flat despite wanting to do just that was that his disciple's chakra was about to expire, and she needed some time to restore it to be able to use the disguise again. Or at the very least, she could stay in his house while he would go talk to Naruto. Although it seemed like she wasn't from Konoha after all, she could very well be a former rogue ninja. That's why until he would check the bingo book, he believed it was better for her to conceal her identity while they were in the village.

"Yeah. Tell him to come to my place if he wants to talk," he finally replied.

"Alright, will do!" Ino waved at him. "Laters!"

He continued to walk in the direction of his desolate home, silently pulling the amnesiac girl along, not letting go until they left the crowded street and entered the outskirts.

"Does the village seem familiar to you?" he asked absently, though already knowing the answer. This was a rare case when he wanted to initiate a hollow conversation — anything just to distract himself from the mirthless thoughts of the pain his best friend was feeling right now. The very same pain that never left his heart...

"No," she replied quietly, "But, I like it quite a lot. I—I wish we could stay here for a while."

"We won't. Not for a long time anyway," he replied honestly. "I was planning to leave as soon as possible, but… Maybe we'll stay for a day or two after all."

"As you wish," replied the girl, remaining mute for a while but then deciding to ask delicately, "This person—the one named Naruto… He is your close friend, isn't he?"

"Yeah," said Sasuke quietly, lost in his thought. "My only friend."

"Oh… Y-You must be a great friend then," she smiled timidly, looking at the Uchiha encouragingly.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, although his absent tone clearly told her that he wasn't really interested to know the answer. Still, she decided to try to elaborate,

"W-Well, you came here to help him as soon as he asked you to—and—" She bit her lip, lowering her eyes shyly. What she truly wanted to say was that it amazed her how he hadn't left  _her_  in this situation either despite them being absolute foreigners to each other. But, it would imply that he was her friend as well, and the girl wasn't sure if she could say that yet. If she ever would be able to, given that Sasuke had just stressed the fact that Naruto was his  _only_  friend.

Much to her relief, he wasn't intent on continuing the conversation at all, so they spent the next few minutes in complete silence. Eventually, they entered the abandoned area that, to her, strangely felt much more peaceful than everything she'd seen until now. There was the only house that looked decent — maybe even well maintained compared to the rest of them. To her slight joy, that was exactly where they headed to.

Sasuke opened the door, walking inside and glancing at her over his shoulder.

"Come in. You may take any room on the second floor. There's an old wardrobe in the bedroom to the right from the stairs. You may look for some clothes in there if you feel like changing, there should be something that would fit you."

"Thank you," she smiled at him tenderly with gratitude, undoing the transformation jutsu and stepping inside before looking around curiously as he switched on the lights.

The interior of the house was surprisingly comfy, not appearing to be unoccupied at all. There was hardly any dust on any surface she could see, and there even were pink flowers in the vase on the table in the living room, though not very fresh ones.

 _Does he not live alone?_  she wondered a bit anxiously, imagining how displeased would be whoever had placed the flowers there if this person was Sasuke's girlfriend or his wife. Besides, he'd also said he had women's clothing upstairs…

"You got some time to eat and rest, the kitchen is that way," he waved in the direction of one of the doors, quickly going through the correspondence that had stacked up on the small desk near the entrance.

She nodded, quickly heading towards the fridge — again, surprisingly not empty at all — in order to find some food for herself, for Sasuke and possibly for his friend before he arrived. It would be impolite to leave the guest without some treatment, or at least so she believed.

"When Naruto comes here, you may talk if he asks you something, but make sure to keep your disguise up. You still look like you belong in a hospital," said the Uchiha, coming along a few seconds later and pouring himself a glass of water. "Although Ino didn't recognize your chakra, which means you're not from Konoha, he might start asking who did a number on you like that and so on. And you are not the someone this white knight should be worried about right now."

Neither of them had any idea of how ironic the Uchiha's last sentence really was...


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. Requiem for** **His Love**

The atmosphere in the house had been more than a bit tensed up since the moment they'd arrived. Sasuke was keeping quiet, and so was his apprentice as she was slowly getting accustomed to the new place. He wasn't paying much attention to her, and she didn't do anything to attract it, of course.

It seemed that Naruto wasn't about to show up after all, contrary to the Uchiha's expectations. An hour passed, and then another, and another, but it remained just as quiet in the desolate district outside. Eventually, the raven-haired ninja began to relax, laid back on the couch in the guest room and staring at the ceiling blankly. In spite of the uneasy environment, he was trying to analyze the situation with a cold head.

Things kept getting more and more complicated lately, and he didn't like it at all. Ironically, it reminded him of the days just prior to the Massacre. Although back then he was merely a helpless child, quite unlike the almost omnipotent being he was these days, right now he felt almost equally as clueless and lost as before. He couldn't help the nagging feeling that he was unable to grasp the full picture of the situation at hand. And said situation definitely was no good, to say the least.

He didn't know who was the girl Ino had told him about, but Sasuke could already sense that the loss of his love interest had hurt his friend badly. Perhaps, far more badly than everything the blond ninja had experienced before. And not only that – it appeared that a good number of people in Konoha were affected too, judging by the reactions of Ino and Konohamaru. But, the grief wasn't even the worst part. As compassionate and  _passionate_ as Sasuke was behind the hard exterior, he also was a very responsible and reserved person whenever the situation demanded it. He realized that the biggest problem right now was Naruto's condition that definitely would if not already affected the entire village, possibly even more than that. After all, Naruto Uzumaki was a symbol of hope for countless people across the ninja world. Konoha in particular now viewed him as someone who was destined to lead them to greatness soon enough. Unfortunately, it also implied that Naruto simply couldn't afford to be just a  _human_  sometimes. He already was  _more_  than just a person… Besides, they were shinobi of Konoha. Their feelings didn't matter at all when it came to the village's well-being. Especially not those of the future Hokage...

The Uchiha sighed, putting one leg on another and rubbing his face tiredly. Fortunately for everyone, there was probably no better person than himself to teach another how to deal with grief and pain of loss. Right now all he had to do was to make the Uzumaki snap out of it… before it was too late. But first, he had to find him, it seemed...

"Um—Sasuke-san…" He turned his head to the left, curiously eyeing the girl who decided to finally break the oppressive silence. She was wearing his mother's warm grey jumper — even without seeing it at the moment, he knew it had the Uchiha clan's crest on its back. She'd also picked a dark-blue skirt that went slightly below her knees and a pair of old slippers — all in all, her look was pretty modest right now.

"What?" he asked neutrally, though noticing that the girl was nervous for some reason.

"I—well, I thought that maybe you should take some rest — it's already 3:00 AM…"

He frowned, looking at the door once again. Reluctantly, he had to admit she might be right — at this point, the wait was beginning to seem futile.

"Hn. Fair enough," he snapped a few seconds later, getting up from the couch and then eyeing her bruised face critically. "You should worry about yourself, though. How are you feeling?"

She beamed at the question, locking her hands in front of her.

"Much better than before, thank you! I—"

_Knock, knock._

The girl flinched, stopping mid-sentence and cocking her head to look at the door behind his back perplexedly. Sasuke turned around glanced at the entrance too before silently motioning the girl to change her appearance – she nodded nervously, quickly forming a hand seal. This time only her physical features changed, while the clothes remained the same — probably a wise choice, for the less complex was the transformation, the less chakra it would consume in the long term.

Satisfied by her disguise, Sasuke nodded approvingly and walked to the door. Hesitating for a second, he took the handle manfully and opened it.

The drizzling rain outside was a suitable masterstroke to the sombre narrative of this night. They stared into each other's eyes without moving for a while. Maybe even long enough for a side viewer to consider it quite an awkward situation. Perhaps, that's why the girl behind the Uchiha's back frowned at the silent scene, carefully taking a step backwards as she began to suspect there would be a fight between them. It was only when she accidentally stumbled upon a commode, making an old vase fall on the floor and shatter loudly, and yelping in horror of what she'd just done, that they both finally returned to reality and looked in her direction absently.

But then, surprisingly, Naruto almost instantly lost any interest in the mysterious female stranger, lowering his eyes depressively and staring at Sasuke's feet.

"Hey," he finally muttered, standing still. The Uchiha had to notice that his friend looked truly awful. Everything from the dark bags under his dim eyes and the few days old stubble on his face to his slouching posture and mismatching, clearly randomly picked clothes, was just screaming that something was terribly wrong with him.

"Been a while," replied the Uchiha reservedly, moving out of his way. "Come in. You look like a wet dog, dobe."

As if not noticing the wisecrack, the blond stepped inside obediently, slowly walking forward and then sitting down. Sasuke closed the door and looked across the room. His apprentice just stared at the newcomer with a baffled expression, apparently unsure how to react. Naruto himself was sitting at the corner of the old couch. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and locking his fingertips in front of himself, his head lowered meekly.

The Uchiha took a deep breath, coming close and settling down in the chair on the opposite side of the small coffee table. This time he decided to be the one to break the gloomy atmosphere, so he turned to the girl who was still standing near the stairs and said:

"Bring us some tea, take care of the debris and then you may go have some rest for the next few hours," he ordered, giving the young woman a pointed look. Only then did she finally look away from the guest, quickly nodding at Sasuke and then storming towards the kitchen. The Uchiha noticed absently that she was still slightly limping…  _Maybe she isn't feeling as good as she pretends to,_ he thought sullenly.

"You got a maid? Since when?" quietly asked Naruto, watching her move until she left his field of vision, though not turning his head to follow her any further.

"She's not a maid," said Sasuke, putting his hands on the armrests.

"Oh? Then who is she?" the other shinobi finally looked into his eyes again, appearing slightly confused and the tiniest bit interested at the same time.

"Nobody important," said the Uchiha evasively. Frankly, he wasn't sure how to explain their relationship to anybody just yet – not because it was any complicated, which it probably wasn't, but rather due to how weird the circumstances were for now. "I heard what happened," the ninja decided to change the subject to the most important one right away.

Naruto looked down again, letting out an intermittent sigh.

"Yeah," he simply muttered, clasping his fingers.

"So why did you summon me?" asked Sasuke bluntly, which made his friend look at him a bit confusedly. "Surely, you didn't just want me to comfort you while watching you sob in misery. You got plenty of people for that sake here in the village. And as far as I'm aware, you don't really talk to them nowadays."

Perhaps, it was his cynical reasoning that caused the sudden reaction, but Naruto actually smirked, shaking his head.

"As straightforward as ever, huh… I guess some things never change, teme." He then raised his head and looked at his friend, and maybe for the first time in his life Sasuke felt the strong desire to look away from his gaze. The almost suicidal degree of pain and desperation in the blue eyes made him feel very uncomfortable. "You know... At first, I was going to come here and tell you everything about her… How much I love her... how much I miss her… and how much I wish I never let it happen. But…," he smiled sadly, pursing his lips for a moment as if afraid to burst in tears, but then continuing stoically, "You don't know shit, but it seems you already understand. Don't you, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha gave him a deadpan look, realizing that showing any emotions right now could be harmful – both compassion and neglection had equal chances to make Naruto feel even worse.

"I know enough," he said firmly, feeling increasingly disturbed with each passing moment.

"Do you?" Naruto's smile vanished, and he stared at the table blankly. "I doubt you'd even remember her name at this point," he said, sounding almost bitter.  _Almost._  Sasuke frowned, feeling the dark suspicion creeping into him.  _No way..._

"But, it's okay. You just never paid enough attention to notice her, I guess."

The Uchiha felt his heart skipping a beat.  _Never noticed her?_  Could it be that...  _Sakura_ …?

"You know, she asked me about you not long before she—," Naruto paused and swallowed, his face slightly wincing. "Well, I guess you don't remember it either, but you actually saved her dad's life when we had that problem with the Moon. She was grateful… She wanted to thank you," he uttered quietly, his voice slightly cracking by the end of the sentence.

It made Sasuke feel even more confused. He couldn't remember himself saving Sakura's father, or even encountering that man at all in the last few years. Still, he decided not to comment, continuing to listen to his friend attentively instead.

"Funny." The blond smirked again, his thumbs rubbing each other nervously — Sasuke had never seen him do this before. "She's always been the only girl who never chased you like all the others did. I guess that's another reason why we got together, in the first place," Naruto grinned, glancing at his former rival with a faded shade of former goofiness in the blue irises. "You would— _would've_  liked her."

The Uchiha frowned, this time feeling completely lost. Still, he didn't want to offend his friend by showing that he had absolutely no clue who he was talking about, so he decided to lock up a bit, saying abruptly:

"I'm sorry for your loss, Naruto. I still don't understand how can I help you."

For a while, they remained mute. Both of them understood each other's feeling perfectly, so there was no need for words when it came to expressing them. That's why Sasuke was the one who finally broke the silence after some time, his eyes widening a tad in a surprising realization.

"You don't think she's dead," he stated, sounding both curious and amazed at the same time.

"I do," said Naruto, to his surprise, "But… I think there's  _a chance_  I might be wrong. I wanna check it out, that's why I called ya. I—I don't think I can get over it otherwise, you know?"

Sasuke slowly nodded, the point of their meeting finally emerging to his relief.

"So what exactly can I do for you?" he decided to go straight to the point instead of wallowing in sentimentality any longer.

Meanwhile, Sasuke's apprentice showed up with a teapot and two cups on a wide plate. She quickly put it on the table and then went toward the remnants of the vase she'd broken, but neither of the men paid any attention to her.

"Well… it's not easy to explain, so let me put it all together for ya," murmured Naruto. "You know I'm a sensory type, and it gets much stronger when I use Kurama's chakra. When Hinata's chakra got weaker, I couldn't track her anymore, I only sensed she was alive. But then... even that was gone," he muttered, clasping his palms tighter.

 _So her name was Hinata,_  the Uchiha made a note in his mind. At the same time, the girl who was now collecting the debris to get rid of it later froze for a moment, raising her head slightly at the mention of the name.

"But, a few weeks later I suddenly felt something like—like a flash, you know? Or a bang… Anyhow, I'm sure I felt her chakra once again! Just a glimpse of it, but I'm  _fucking sure_  it was her!" he exclaimed emotionally, looking at Sasuke with a plea and despair. "Can you help me check it out?"

"I guess I can, but what exactly are you implying? That she's in some other dimension, and someone opened a portal which made you feel her presence for a moment?" asked his friend, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, as sharp at analyzing as ever. "Don't you think it's a bit of a stretch, Naruto? Besides, my left eye only grants me access to a few of them; we don't even know how many dimensions exist in total. Even if you're not wrong, chances are we'll never access the one you need. This experiment of yours won't prove anything."

"I know, but it's the least we can do! I'm gonna use my chakra mode now to enhance my abilities. Can you open a portal to every dimension you can reach, one by one?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"I can, but it takes a lot of chakra for me to do that. I'll need to borrow some of yours so that it goes smoothly."

Naruto smiled happily for the first time during their conversation, and so did Sasuke against his own will as he noticed how life slowly began to return to the blond's face.

"Sure! Here, let's do it!" His body shined with bright yellow chakra. He reached out his fist, and so did Sasuke, instantly receiving the fiery-red chakra cloak from the Nine-Tails as they touched.

"It sure brings back memories." The Uchiha grinned, and so did his friend as Sasuke opened the first portal with his Rinnegan – a tiny one since they weren't planning to travel through it, just big enough to maintain a stable space-time connection between the two worlds.

While they were too busy to notice it, the girl sitting on the floor a few yards away from them watched the scene in awe, astonished by the power they both radiated. But, unknown to them, the moment their chakra merged, she suddenly flinched and looked down at her hand anxiously. Her entire body glowed with dim, barely notable purple light for a second before momentarily returning back to normal.

"Sasuke! I feel it!" Naruto yelled out, stepping forward. "No—it's gone… Damn it! But, it means she  _is_  there! She must be alive, Sasuke…! I'm gonna find her!" He turned towards the door.

"Calm down, Naruto!" said the Uchiha, grabbing his forearm. "I've felt it too. But you mustn't do anything reckless now."

"W-What? You did?" His former teammate looked at him in shock. "But—but how?"

"I'm not sure," admitted Sasuke, frowning. "I felt a flash of some potent chakra… similar to ours."

"To ours…? You mean—oh!" Naruto's eyes widened, and he looked at his shining hand thoughtfully. "It must be old man Hamura's chakra! Yeah, it had to be!"

"...What?" uttered the Uchiha patiently, already not so sure about his friend's sanity. The only Hamura he'd ever heard of was Hamura Ōtsutsuki, the brother of the Sage. "What does  _he_  have to do with anything?"

"Oh! I never told you, did I?" The jinchūriki smiled brightly, deactivating his chakra mode which caused Sasuke's chakra cloak to vanish also. "Back during the Moon accident, he helped us, kinda. Long story short, Hinata got some of his chakra, just like we got ours from the Six Paths old geezer! And now I'm dead sure it was exactly what we felt!"

Although Naruto looked incredibly happy, Sasuke wasn't about to share his almost delirious excitement. His desire to believe that his lover was still alive was understandable and natural, but the Uchiha realized there could be a dozen of possible reasons for them to feel Hamura's chakra when he opened that portal while their spiritual energies merged at the same time. It had even summoned the Sage before, after all. Still, the most important thing was achieved — the Uzumaki back from the vegetable state, it seemed. And the rest could be dealt with later.

"I see," slowly said the dark-haired shinobi, "Still, you can't just leave Konoha to look for her. You have no way to do it anyway; sensory type or not, you can't travel between dimensions, you can't sense this chakra on a whim, and most importantly, you cannot run away from the village. You have your responsibilities. Do not forget about your promise, Naruto" he said abruptly, implying their conversation from a few years ago when they were discussing the future of their world, with Sasuke himself agreeing to follow his friend's path of achieving peace instead of making the revolution happen.

The blue-eyed young man lowered his head in shame, frowning and staying silent for a few seconds.

"You're right," he finally said quietly, looking lost and torn. "But… what should I do then?"

Sasuke peered at him searchingly for a while, trying to come up with a solution for this situation. Frankly, he didn't care if the girl was alive or not; if anything, he'd prefer her to be dead after all, for it would at least give his friend the closure he needed to move on without a false hope to cling to. However, there was no denial that they both  _had_  felt that chakra, whatever it was...

"Right now you should go to sleep," he finally said, putting his hand on the blond's shoulder. "Wait until morning, then take care of yourself and get decent. You look like shit."

"But, I can't, Sasuke! Damn it, if she's alive, I must—"

"As the future Hokage, the only thing you  _must_  do is serving the village. Leave the rest to me," said the Uchiha firmly, his eyes full of resolve.

Naruto blinked, giving him a perplexed look.

"What are you saying…?"

"What you just heard. If she is alive, I'll find her for you."  _And this will be my last act of redemption_ , he added in his mind, feeling as if the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. His journey was getting an ultimate purpose; now it wasn't just about wandering aimlessly across the Elemental Nations, helping people here and there. To him it truly didn't matter if the girl was alive or not; now it was about helping his best friend overcome his depression and get back to normal. And thus, protecting the future of their village.

"Are—are you serious?" Tears began to fill the blue eyes, making the Uchiha feel a bit embarrassed and look away.

"If you don't want me to change my mind, go home now and get a hang of yourself. We'll discuss the details tomorrow."

"Really? But—"

"Don't make me regret my decision, Naruto," he deadpanned, giving the other ninja a glare.

The Uzumaki chuckled, turning towards the door and shaking his head.

"Duh! Didn't I tell you how I hate it when I have to obey your orders? But, I guess I have no choice right now… As always, damn it." He walked toward the door, putting his bandaged hand on the handle. But, before he would open it, he added quietly without looking back, "Thank you, Sasuke."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"Hn. Get lost already, I need some rest. Unlike you, I haven't been lazying around for the last few weeks."

"Asshole!" Naruto made a grimace and left the house, the pillow from the couch slamming into the door a split second after it closed shut.

Sasuke inhaled heavily, sitting down and rubbing his temples. At least the biggest problem was seemingly solved, at least for now. And so he could return to the least significant one…

He turned his head to the right, noticing that the broken vase was gone, and so was the girl. He then heard some deaf noise coming from behind the wall, making him wonder why she was still awake. The ninja got up, slowly walking towards the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at the young woman. Her disguise was already gone; she was standing with her back to him, holding some old-looking book — or rather an album. His family pictures?

She almost jumped as she heard his voice, turning around.

"Oh — I'm sorry, Sasuke! I—I felt out of place, and I didn't want to interfere, so—"

"So you decided to study my past? Found anything interesting?" he deadpanned, not really feeling mad, but not exactly fond of her actions either.

"Uh—I didn't mean to pry—I—I'm sorry." She lowered her eyes, carefully putting the dusty album on the windowsill.

"Hn. I don't care anyway, none of it matters anymore." He took a seat at the table, pouring himself some water. "Why aren't you asleep yet? You need to rest."

She bit her lip, hugging herself and looking at him.

"W-Well… I'm sorry, I didn't want to eavesdrop either, but—I heard your conversation with your friend —Naruto-san—and…" She paused, looking both nervous and somewhat conflicted at the same time.

"And what?" he asked calmly, watching her expression with mild curiosity.

"This person he mentioned—Hinata… It seems he really loves her."

The Uchiha kept looking at her impassively, not really getting her point.

"So?"

She smiled sadly, her cheeks blushing a bit.

"It's just that I—I simply wondered—if there is anybody out there who—who is also worried like that—for me, that is."

He shrugged, sipping the tea.

"Whether there is someone or not, they failed at both protecting and finding you. To them, you're most likely dead. Don't reflect on this too much; at least you're  _alive_."

She lowered her eyes again, pursing her lips.

"You... you don't really think she is, do you?"

"Hinata? It's not impossible, but I doubt it," he replied honestly, emptying half of the cup at once. They really needed to go to sleep — this had been a long day.

"Hinata…," she echoed, her lips curving into a humble smile. "It is a nice name."

"You can keep it if you want," said Sasuke indifferently, putting the cup back on the table getting up from his stool, "You don't remember yours anyway, and it's not like she'll ever need it again." He then walked out, heading towards his bedroom.

The girl's smile faded at his harsh words. She then took a thoughtful look at her hand, remembering the weird glowing from before.

 _Hinata…_ Although she had a feeling that Sasuke was being sarcastic when he said it, the idea sounded surprisingly right to her. Now having heard the heartbreaking story of her saviour's friend and his presumably deceased lover, for some reason, she felt strange sympathy for those two and for the feelings Naruto had for that girl. And even if Sasuke was right and that person was really dead, she would indeed keep it... as a memento. Yes, it definitely felt right to her!

"In a way, it gives both of us a second life, doesn't it?" she whispered to herself, smiling timidly again. She then glanced at the clock on the wall — it was already almost 4:00 AM.

And so, Hinata decided to follow Sasuke, realizing that he was right — she really needed to get some rest. There was a lot of things awaiting them ahead, after all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6. Erased**

"What's wrong? Is that all you got? I thought you were angry."

_Smack!_

She took a deep breath and regrouped, ignoring the dull pain in her chest as his palm pushed her backwards. She was indeed  _angry_. Angry at her own body that failed her miserably no matter what she tried to do. Even now, when she attempted to raise her left hand and attack, she simply wasn't nearly fast enough...

_Kick!_

She ducked, barely dodging his leg as it swung just an inch away from her shoulder.

_Punch!_

She panted, clumsily blocking his fist her unruly wrists and then grabbing his arm tightly to prevent it from further movement.

"Not bad," commented Sasuke, effortlessly breaking out of her grasp and lowering his hand. Just like it was during their first sparring session, he remained perfectly calm and relaxed, breathing steadily without so much as a drop of sweat. "I guess you could've beaten a civilian teenager at this rate."

She frowned, unsure if this was a compliment or a mockery which somehow seemed to be more likely the case. Either way, she decided that she disliked it. And combined with her anger and frustration, it got the best of her. So Hinata charged forward again, attempting to deliver a rough punch at his face. Of course, she failed again; in a blink of an eye, the man disappeared, and her hand instantly got twisted painfully behind her back, making the indigo-haired woman gasp and fall on her knees.

"Don't break the rules," he drawled almost lazily from above, not loosening his remorseless grip. "We've agreed not to aim at the face."

"S-Sorry," she muttered, gritting her teeth – the pain in her shoulder joint was becoming almost unbearable. "P-Please, let me go."

"And if I don't? What if I also decide to break that rule? What are you gonna do?" he asked just as casually, not moving at all, though it didn't make the situation any easier for the girl as her own every movement made her hiss in pain.

"I-I don't know!" she cried, biting her lip to suppress tears.

"You don't know, huh?" He bowed down towards her, his lips almost touching her ear. "It's because there is nothing you can do."

"Y-Yes!"

"On the contrary, I could do anything to you right now," he uttered quietly, " _Anything_ , do you understand? Didn't you say you'd never get captured again?"

"I did…!"

"And?"

"I—gah—please, let me go…," she begged in a whimper. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she felt humiliated, desperate and, most importantly, powerless once again – just as it was back in the cage. For a moment, she forgot that it was  _Sasuke_  holding her right now. The only thing she wanted to do was to kill this person, or at least to hurt them back… badly. Right now she regretted she hadn't memorized her warden's face back there. Perhaps, some visualization would help her let all this negativity out...

"Hn." He finally released her without warning, making Hinata fall on the wooden floor awkwardly, panting heavily and rubbing her aching arm. "You have the drive, but your skill currently isn't even worth commenting. Right now any hostile shinobi would easily kill you if they wanted to. Even a genin," he mused, meeting her pained gaze as she curled up on the floor, giving him an almost offended look.

"We'll that change soon enough," he added confidently, with a certain satisfaction noticing the dangerous spark somewhere deep in her white eyes — the same spark he'd had himself many years ago.  _Hatred_. "Get up," he offered her his hand, which she hesitantly took. Sasuke pulled her towards himself, but then his expression instantly changed to a surprised one — clearly, he'd forgotten the fact that she'd lost too much weight in captivity. The girl's fragile frame bumped into him, and he reflectively wrapped his hand around her waist so that she wouldn't fall again.

They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds as he held her tightly, the intense silence was broken only by the lone bee flying lazily under the sun around the wooden terrace. Hinata felt her face slowly reddening as she felt his warm breath on her skin. His lips were now inches away from hers, and the tight grip of his hand almost made her want to remain in this position forever.  _Almost._ Because the girl realized this was not something she should think at all… She looked away, feeling ashamed for a reason she couldn't quite fathom herself.

He blinked, and his eyes regained focus as if breaking out of a mirage. He then looked away too, frowning.

"You must eat more. Your body is still too weak, though better than before," he murmured, removing his hand of her and stepping back. "This spar is over. For now, go and rest. I have some business in the village." He turned away, grabbing his jacket from the fence.

Hinata followed him with her eyes perplexedly, feeling a bit dazed by the situation neither of them had foreseen. It was only when he was about to leave the terrace that she locked her palms in front of herself asked meekly,

"W-When are you going to return?" He stopped.

"Probably by the evening," came the immediate answer, "If anybody comes here while I'm away, use transformation jutsu and tell them something."

"S-Something?" she echoed in confusion.

"Come up with some story of who are you and why you're here. Nobody important should be coming anyway, if anybody at all, so you can just tell them you're a maid, or—," he paused, weighing up his idea for a second. "Actually, just tell them you're my girlfriend."

"G-Girlfriend?!" her eyes widened and she almost gasped, staring at him in disbelief.

The ninja shrugged carelessly, looking at her impassively.

"A maid is an easy target for anyone to interrogate. A girlfriend of  _mine_ , however…," he walked away without further due, leaving Hinata standing there alone, completely dumbfounded.

Of course, he had a point, now that she thought about it. Considering the things she'd already discovered about Sasuke's reputation within this settlement, nobody would dare to mess with his girlfriend, whether she was real or not. Still, Hinata felt it would be highly inappropriate to even pretend to be his…  _his_...

Feeling tired and still in a bit of pain, for a while, she kept looking in the direction Sasuke went, slightly spacing out. Perhaps out of sheer curiosity, even though against her own will, but for a brief moment, she imagined herself actually _being_  in that position. How would she behave if she really were his lover? A foreign woman he had brought here only temporarily – surely, he wouldn't want her to order around his possible guests, whoever they might be. The best she could count on was that it would scare away any unwanted curious people who might decide to pay Sasuke a hollow visit. But, if someone like that blonde girl Ino would come, she probably wouldn't buy much of it…

Hinata hugged herself, sighing abruptly. Of course, this little stress was nothing compared to the tortures she'd gone through before, but somehow it was probably even more of a pressure. She was horribly afraid of doing something wrong, of letting Sasuke down after everything he'd done for her. She already inwardly scolded herself for losing control over her aggression in the spar they'd just had – truly, the girl had no idea what was wrong with her back then.

And what had followed afterwards…

She blushed even more than before, remembering both the physical pain he had caused to her and the awkward yet very comforting hug he'd given her right away, even if though wasn't an intended one for sure. That was an odd contrast, and most people would probably find her attitude unhealthy, and yet… Even though she would never dare admit it even silently, Hinata actually found the whole sequence quite thrilling, secretly wishing for it to happen again.

— **=OwO=** —

"Well, well, now what is my favourite student doing down here this early in the morning?" asked Kakashi in an indifferent tone very similar to the one Sasuke had used just an hour ago while talking to his own student.

The Uchiha gave the Hokage a gloomy glance in response without taking a break from checking countless papers one after another, his Sharingan actively copying everything he saw.

"Your coffee is shit," said the young man instead of a greeting, the half-empty paper cup with already cold liquid standing lonely in the corner of the desk.

"That is because you chose the coffee machine for guests. The good one is upstairs inside my office. All the more reasons to pay a visit to your old sensei for once, don't you think?" replied the Sixth with a slight smirk. "It's been a while. What brings you here to the archive of all places?"

"Just looking for someone is all," murmured the Uchiha, opening the bingo book.

"Someone, huh?" His former teacher narrowed his eyes a bit suspiciously, as he leaned on the edge of the Uchiha's desk. "Could it be Hinata Hyūga by a chance?"

Sasuke's hand twitched, pausing mid-air for a split second before almost instantly returning to its previous routine.

"Maybe," he replied vaguely a moment later, still not looking at the man.

Kakashi sighed, turning away and staring blankly at the numerous bookshelves of the underground shelter of the famous red building.

"If so, then don't bother, Sasuke," he uttered quietly after some time. "You won't find anything here."

The Uchiha paused again, this time raising his head to look at Hatake.

"I only need her picture," he finally admitted, putting the book on the table and opening it.

"Well, even though I don't think you really  _need_  it, I guess I'll have to repeat – you won't find it here."

"Why is that?" asked the younger shinobi with a hint of irritation.

"Everything on her has been taken out and burned. Whenever a ninja dies, we destroy all the information about them including their photos, in order to prevent possible intruders from impersonating them via transformation jutsu. It's a standard procedure, didn't you know? Even for a Hokage."

The raven-haired man lowered his head, dissatisfied. Now that he thought about it, he remembered hearing something about it before. Naruto had told him it was the very reason he'd never found out anything about his parents until actually meeting them — there were no pictures anywhere.

"I still need to see her face," he said, peering at Kakashi stubbornly.

"There's not much I can do for you in this case. The best you can hope for is getting some luck in her clan's estate. If they let you in at all, that is."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, recalling what Naruto had told him.  _Her clan… The Hyūga clan, isn't it? It means the guy I saved back then is there… Yes, her father, that is._

"They will," he then said, surprising Hatake with how adamantly it sounded.

"To be honest, you should just drop it, Sasuke," said Kakashi unexpectedly firmly yet somehow gently at the same time. "This won't get you anywhere. She is dead. I understand that you want to help Naruto, but—"

"This isn't about her," his former student interrupted him, finally meeting his gaze with a surprisingly soft expression. "Make no mistake, I don't think she is alive."

The Hokage frowned, crossing his hands on his chest.

"Then what exactly is your intention?"

Sasuke looked away, locking his fingers on top of the bingo book.

"I'm buying Naruto some time to recover. Nothing else."

Kakashi's eyes widened a bit at his confession.

"Time…?"

"Yeah. Time doesn't heal this kind of pain. Nothing ever really does, but it helps one suppress it. The more time passes, the deeper he buries it in his mind. Don't you know yourself? It may be false hope, and he may even realize it himself deep inside, but he needs something to cling to in order to move on… for now anyway."

Kakashi took a deep breath, finally nodding in understanding.

"I see. What I don't get is why you're looking for her photo then."

The Uchiha shrugged indefinitely, returning to the book and going through its pages very quickly — apparently, he was looking for something, or rather,  _someone_  specific.

"I'm leaving again soon, and I'll travel a lot. If she happens to be alive after all, it would be stupid to miss her just because I don't remember her face." He realized that the Sixth noticed how evasive and dubious was his response (despite being genuine to an extent), but apparently, the older man decided not to press. Maybe because he knew that Sasuke simply couldn't be so talkative all of a sudden without a good reason — particularly, hiding something he found worthy of hiding. And if this was the case, pushing further would get Kakashi nowhere for sure.

"I see," he said after a while. "Well then, good luck. Another place you might want to check up is Kurenai's. She was her sensei... I believe they were pretty close."

"Thanks," replied the Uchiha, closing the book with a snap and getting up. "I should go."

"Oh, by the way!" Kakashi's voice made him stop when he was already about to leave the dusty chamber. "It's not that I don't trust you, but I wanted to ask you nonetheless – just for my own solace. The fact that you requested the most recent version of the bingo book earlier… It doesn't have anything to do with the identity of the mysterious lady you brought in the village, does it?"

Sasuke froze, feeling the nasty cold going down his spine.  _Those bastards…_

"Are you spying on me?" he scowled, barely suppressing the uprising anger.

"No, we don't. Please, don't think that," quickly said Kakashi, raising his hands apologetically. "It's the rumour mill and all… Besides, let's be honest, you should've known better than introducing her to one of ANBU's highest ranks," he reasoned, grinning under the mask.

 _Introduced her to an ANBU?_   _Could it be that Ino…?_  he thought, unable to believe his own wild guess. But, he then remembered the blonde's suspiciously-looking boyfriend, and it all clicked in his head right away, making him want to slap himself. Kakashi was right to question him like that. He'd been  _too_  careless.

"Whatever. I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied casually and turned away, letting his old sensei know that the topic was closed.

"Just one thing," said the grey-haired man quietly, rubbing his chin. "If she is a rogue ninja after all, please make sure to have her out of Konoha by tomorrow evening. A diplomatic mission from Kumo is arriving soon, and the village will be checked very thoroughly."

"So long, Kakashi," said Sasuke, leaving the place.

**—=OwO=—**

"Hiashi-sama," said the relatively young man whose short black hair already had a few grey strands. "We have a visitor wanting to talk to you."

"I do not accept visitors today," replied the head of the clan, returning to the scroll he'd been reading quietly in his cabinet for the last thirty minutes.

"But, this is—"

"Did you not hear me, Kō?" his normally calm voice cracked a bit, and he gripped the paper tighter. "I do not wish to talk to anybody."

The younger man lowered his head obediently.

"As you wish, Hiashi-sama." He turned around, looking at the secretary girl from the Branch House who was waiting for him near the entrance of the room. "Tell Uchiha-san he should come some other time."

Hiashi stopped writing, slowly raising his head at Kō.

"Uchiha? Sasuke Uchiha is here?" he asked a bit emotionally, making the younger ninja give him a baffled look.

"Well, yes, that's what I was trying to tell you…"

"Let him in."

Kō nodded again after a brief pause, motioning at the girl so that she would follow Hiashi's command, which she did right away. He then looked at his superior worriedly, quite curious about the reason why he'd suddenly agreed to talk to the Uchiha, of all people, yet not daring to ask it directly.

Sasuke showed up not more than a minute later. To Kō's great disappointment, Hiashi, having noticed the former rogue ninja enter the room, coughed and said firmly:

"Leave us now.  _Everyone_."

Naturally, they obeyed without hesitation. When the door finally closed behind Sasuke's back, Hiashi got up from his chair, and came close to the ninja, offering his hand.

"This is an honour, Uchiha-donō."

"Likewise," replied Sasuke greeting the man with a handshake. "Sorry for breaking in so suddenly. I'm leaving again soon and I need to talk to you before I go."

Hiashi's rather tensed up face relaxed just a little bit at his words.

"No need to be sorry. I owe you my life; a conversation is the least I can do to pay the debt, Uchiha-donō."

" _Sasuke_  is fine," he replied, defying the traditional formalities as usual. "And there is no debt. As long as you're a ninja of Konoha, my duty is to protect you with my life."

"That is very noble of you," Hiashi nodded approvingly, locking his hands behind his back. "So what can I do for you, Sasuke?"

"This is about your daughter, Hinata."

The man's features darkened again, and his jaw clenched a tad.

"Pardon me for being blunt, but this is not a topic I would like to discuss with anybody right now."

The Uchiha nodded quickly.

"I understand. Still, there is something I require on the matter. It is important."

"And that would be…?"

"Her most recent photo."

Hiashi stared at him grimly for a few seconds and then sighed, closing his eyes and thinking for a while.

"Please, follow me, young man." With this, he walked towards the exit, and Sasuke strode after him, unsure what to expect.

They went through multiple stairs and rooms, eventually going deep underground of the old mansion. Frankly, too absorbed by his own thought, Sasuke had long lost the track by the time they finally stopped – not that he had a reason to memorize the path anyway.

Hiashi bowed down in front of the heavy door, and the Uchiha realized that it was some kind of a traditional ritual, so he arched reluctantly as well, not wanting to offend the man and his clan. They then walked inside, and Sasuke frowned, looking around. It certainly didn't strike him as a family archive of any kind, nor as a living room. The walls of the entire spacious hall were covered with names. Some of them hand-written, others – particularly on the wall directly in front of them – appearing to be sealed into the huge stone tablet lit by multiple candles.

"You most likely are wondering what this place is," Hiashi voiced his thoughts, turning to look at his guest. "Normally, an outsider is not allowed to come here, albeit this is not a secret place. Rather, a sacred one." He came close to the wall covered with seals, touching it gently. The young ninja frowned, his eyes quickly running through the names inscribed on it – there weren't too many, barely above a hundred. And the rest was just empty space.

"A lot of us died during the Great War," the clan's head answered his silent question again, peering at the seals thoughtfully. "As you can see, my name is right here," he touched the top middle part of the wall, his fingers sliding down to the left then. "This is the name of my younger daughter." Sasuke's gaze followed his hand – the kanji on the stone said ' _Hanabi_.'

"And here," Hiashi's palm slowly moved to the right, stopping on the empty spot, "Was my elder daughter's name. It disappeared a few weeks ago," he uttered quietly, biting his twitching lip which suddenly made Sasuke feel deeply sorry for the man, realizing what he was feeling right now. The Uchiha had lost his entire family while being a child himself; he didn't know what it felt like to lose his own child, but he imagined it to be at least just as agonizing...

"This shrine is enhanced with ancient chakra of our clan's ancestors. Nobody knows for sure how exactly it works. What we do know is that it can sense the chakra of any member of our clan, wherever it is located – even if it's been sealed away. That's how we know who is alive at the moment, no matter where they are." He then walked towards the left wall, instantly finding a certain name – this one clearly written by a human's hand with a piece of chalk, just like all the rest on this wall.

"And here, we leave those that disappear from the monument."

 _'Hinata',_ Sasuke read the kanji Hiashi was now staring blankly at — directly under the one that said ' _Neji'._

"My daughter is dead, Uchiha-donō. Her chakra is gone. I imagine that you needed her photo because you wanted to search for her, but it is too late now. She is no more," he said quietly, turning to look at his guest. "If there is anything else I can help you with, please say it now. Otherwise, I would ask you to leave me alone in my grief."

Sasuke slowly nodded, lowering his eyes sadly. As he had suspected, the girl was officially dead after all. Still, there was one more place to visit. Futile or not, he had promised Naruto to try out everything, so his next goal was the house of this Hinata's sensei.

— **=uWu=** —

"That's enough. Our job here is done," commanded the pink-haired kunoichi, letting the two minor medics stop channelling their energy into the unconscious man.

"But, Sakura-san," began one of them. "We still—"

"Don't waste your chakra on something that can be healed with basic therapy, remember?" She smiled at her protégé, patting her shoulder gently. "You've done well. Both of you," she added, winking at the teenage boy who gulped nervously, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Thanks, Sakura-san." They bowed in respect simultaneously, and the young kunoichi chuckled, waving at them dismissively.

"You may get some rest, for now. It's almost lunch break already and we don't have that many patients today. For once..." She sighed and walked towards her office, taking off the white robe.

As the woman entered the room, she stretched her back and limbs, enjoying the warm sunlight coming through the window.

"Well then, at least I have some time to go and clean up Sasuke-kun's place," she murmured to herself, glancing at her watch. "Ugh, it's been too much work in the last few days..." The kunoichi sighed, pursing her lips.  _I guess I should also get fresh flowers on the way… For both of them,_ she thought _._  The image of the cold gravestone of her recently deceased friend popped in her mind, instantly wiping the half-smile off her face.

Shaking her head, Sakura grabbed her purse and walked out of the office, heading towards the exit.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7. His Light**

As Hinata walked out of the shower, she came close to the big mirror on the wall and eyed her reflection up and down, studying herself curiously as she'd had no such opportunity since the moment they'd left that town. To her surprise, the skin on her face had almost completely healed in just two days, only some barely notable traces reminding her of the damage she'd suffered. She was still awfully pale, but her face didn't resemble a skull anymore, which definitely was a pleasant development that made her smile happily.

When she began to brush her hair, the girl groaned quietly, noticing how messy it remained no matter what she tried to do. Eventually, she gave up with a sigh, studying it more closely. Although its sloppy state was slightly bugging her and she felt an irrational need to fix it for some reason, the girl was unsure if she should even bother, not really knowing why she felt the urge to make it look neat. Deep inside she didn't really want to do anything to it, enjoying the slightly wild way her bangs were now, resembling those of Sasuke. The long indigo strands reached slightly below her chest now. He hair was uneven, a bit shorter on the right side — apparently, it had been damaged at some point too, though Hinata obviously couldn't remember it.

And her eyes… She realized they looked exotic, to say the least, being fully pearl-white without a sign of a pupil. Still, it wasn't exactly what bothered her as she studied her own irises carefully, her nose almost poking the glass of the mirror. She had a feeling that something was off with them, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it, not knowing how they'd looked before.

Her gaze then slid down to her bare chest. Despite her body still being terribly skinny, her breasts somehow still remained rather prominent, although she had a feeling they had been bigger before. The scars on her sides, stomach and arms were already white, though still pretty easy to notice which made her frown, wondering if they would ever fade completely.

She then raised her hands, studying her palms and forearms and smiling happily. There weren't as many scars, but the fresh bruises from the earlier training session made the young woman's mood get a bit better. At least the results were already showing, and she could now do various things without being afraid of randomly collapsing...

Absorbed by these thoughts, the kunoichi wasn't really following the time, having nothing to do until Sasuke's return anyway. But, as soon as she was done taking care of her body and had put the black bathrobe on, she almost jumped on her spot when she heard the entrance door on the first floor close shut. Then someone's heels began clattering on the wooden floor sonorously, echoing across the entire house...

Realizing that it couldn't be the owner of the house making this sound, Hinata gulped, crossing her fingers and transforming swiftly — this time into a blonde reminding of a mixture of Ino and Naruto, slightly shorter than her own natural body. She realized it would be unwise to hide now, especially since her chakra pool was very limited so she had to get rid of the mysterious visitor as soon as possible, so she quietly walked out of the bathroom and sneaked down the stairs, trying to take a peek at the intruder.

It turned to be a stunning pink-haired lady dressed in a stylish red blouse combined with a long beige skirt and a straw hat. She was also wearing high heels, but even without them, she appeared to be slightly taller than Hinata. Holding two beautiful bouquets of flowers, she was standing in the middle of the guest room, looking around perplexedly, apparently strongly confused by something she was seeing.

Hinata coughed quietly, instantly drawing her attention. The woman's eyes widened in surprise.

"Uh… hello," she murmured, staring at the disguised Hinata and appearing to be even more baffled now. "Excuse me, but... who are you? Do you know who owns this place?"

Quickly beginning to panic, the transformed kunoichi had to clench her fists hidden by the long sleeves of the bathrobe, barely getting a hold of herself.

"Y-Yes," she replied, trying to sound confident. "This is the house of Sasuke Uchiha."

The jade eyes of the lady widened even more, and she blinked again, as if unsure if she'd just heard her correctly.

"Erm… well, but — pardon me for being so blunt, but — what are you doing here then?" she murmured, clasping the flowers more tightly.

"I—," Hinata stuttered, hugging herself nervously.  _What should I say now? I don't even know who this lady is, and also…,_ thought Hinata, desperately trying to figure out the best way to act.

"It's just that, I'm not sure Sasuke-kun would appreciate someone breaking into his house, you know?" The pink-haired one smiled at her leniently, and something in her expression made Hinata feel a prick of irritation. She had no idea who this person might be, and it was clearly mutual. Then why did she assume she had broken into Sasuke's house?

"I did not break in," she uttered quietly yet firmly, deciding to just do as the shinobi had told her. "I am Sasuke's girlfriend."

She instantly regretted saying it, but it was too late to go back. The other girl's eyes became glassy and dim right away. She rapidly paled, and her hands began to shake, one of the bouquets falling out and landing on the floor at her feet. Without saying a word, she turned around and stormed out of the house, leaving Hinata alone, feeling as if she'd just inadvertently made a horrible mistake…

— **=oWo=** —

By the time he got to the house of Kurenai, it was already well past noon. The heat apparently decided to show some mercy to the citizens of Konoha and retreated for now. Rainy clouds slowly covered the sun, allowing everyone in the village to take a relieving breath of fresh air. As he walked through the narrow streets, still reflecting on the conversation with Hiashi Hyūga, Sasuke glared at the grey sky, slightly narrowing his eyes. He couldn't explain it, but his intuition was telling him that the meeting that was about to happen wouldn't be an easy one either…

He knocked on the door, trying to maintain a neutral face despite his already rather foul mood. At first, nothing happened, leading him to assume that the woman wasn't at home right now. But, when he was already about to turn around and walk away, he heard someone's loud footsteps quickly approaching the door, so the ninja cleared his throat, preparing to explain the reason behind his visit. After all, it was common knowledge that Sasuke Uchiha didn't pay random friendly visits to people. Especially not to those he barely knew at all, so he expected her to be quite surprised.

However, as the door opened, Sasuke himself turned to be the bewildered one. In front of him stood his former classmate who, to be fair, looked just equally as baffled. And unlike that girl Hinata, this guy was hard to forget. A loud mouth, very similar to Naruto, except not nearly as talented or strong…

"Sasuke? The hell are you doing here?" asked the brown-haired young man with red markings on his cheeks. Despite the sentence itself being rather mean, he didn't seem aggressive at all, merely surprised and overly blunt.

"I've come to talk to Kurenai Yūhi. Does she live here?" he replied calmly, watching as Kiba scowled and let go of the door handle, although not letting him in yet.

"Wha…? Well, yeah, she does. She's busy with Mirai right now though, so you gotta wait."

For a few seconds, they just stared at each other, each thinking on their next move. Although Sasuke had no clue who or what Mirai was, he realized that he had to make haste — leaving Hinata alone for too long wasn't very wise, and he'd already spent enough time away from his companion.

"This is important," he said quietly yet crisply after some time, not looking away from Kiba's eyes. "Can you ask her to come out?"

"Well, whatever you gotta say to her you can tell me as well, I take care of her family these days," said the ninja, putting his hands on his sides and looking at Sasuke daringly but also with a hint of genuine curiosity.

Quickly weighing out the imposed offer, the Uchiha decided that telling him wouldn't hurt as he was also involved to some extent.

"This is about your teammate, Hinata Hyūga."

These seven simple words made Kiba's expression change a few times in a matter of a second, from shock and surprise back to an almost angry scowl.

"What the hell do you mean? What of Hinata? She's gone, in case if you don't know," he murmured, the grief of the recent loss more than clear in his hoarse voice.

"That remains to be seen," drawled Sasuke, realizing that unlike Kakashi, this guy probably was quick to flap his mouth, and could also be in touch with Naruto. Which meant the Uchiha had to choose his words wisely this time, not letting him or Kurenai realize he wasn't really intending to look for their deceased teammate. Besides, as he knew just how hard the loss must feel for them, he didn't really want these people to feel any worse, whether they knew what Hiashi had told him earlier or not…

For a while, the short-haired ninja kept gazing at him in disbelief, his face expressing a vast spectre of emotions. But then, to Sasuke's relief, a dark-haired woman showed from the corridor behind Kiba's back, walking towards the two shinobi.

"Kiba, who is there? Mirai is finally asleep, so— _oh_ ," her bloody-red eyes that resembled Sharingan quite a lot widened as she noticed the guest, instantly recognizing him, "Sasuke-kun? How may we help you?"

"He's saying he knows something about—about Hinata," Kiba stuttered by the end of the sentence, throwing a cautious glance at his old sensei. She stopped next to him, looking even more dumbfounded now.

"Is that so?" she finally asked in a low voice, peering at the Uchiha searchingly.

"I have a reason to think she might be alive. I need your aid to find out if it's true or not," he replied with a deadpan expression.

Kurenai didn't respond right away, continuing to study him attentively for a while, before finally uttering:

"Sure... sure. Please, come in."

As Kiba slightly reluctantly stepped to the side, the Uchiha followed his sensei into the guestroom.

"Make yourself at home, Sasuke-kun. Would you like some tea?"

"Yeah, thanks," he nodded, sitting in the chair near the small table filled with various tailoring items as well as a few half-empty plates with food. He also noticed the huge dog lying on the floor in the corner of the room, looking at him lazily as it was apparently half-asleep.

"Here you go," she mumbled, putting a cup in front of him and filling it with steaming yellowish liquid. "So, before I ask you how exactly may I help, would you be so kind as to tell us what exactly makes you think Hinata could be alive?" Kurenai sat on the leather couch, tucking up her legs in a surprisingly childish manner. Kiba lowered soundly just next to her, continuing to peer at the guest incredulously yet not saying anything for now.

Sasuke took the cup, looking at the tea pensively. Not that it was an unexpected question, but it surely wasn't the easiest one to answer as he didn't find Naruto's reasoning any convincing himself. Was he supposed to tell them he and Naruto had caught a glimpse of the Ōtsutsuki chakra that supposedly belonged to their teammate? Or should he come up with a more simplified explanation, which meant lying to some extent?

Feeling annoyed and frustrated by how unpleasantly difficult the situation had become, he took a deep breath, trying to confine his irritation. Just how hard could it be to get a simple picture of somebody…? Not like he was obliged to be doing this anyway. He offered these people help without asking anything to return, and now he had to fight them in order to get a chance to do something for them! If nobody wanted him to help, then why did he even bother…? It wasn't like he had nothing better to do right now than to pretend to be a lonely bigot who wanted to chase the dead…

In his mind, he unwillingly returned to his home, wondering what was his student doing right now. Hopefully, she had rested enough; right now he wanted to leave the village as soon as possible, feeling more than fed up with its 'welcoming' atmosphere. And Hinata…

The sudden idea popped in his head. Could he use her story right now by a chance?

"I encountered a similar-looking person about a week ago," he began, meeting the studying gaze of Kurenai. "That was before I found out what happened to Hinata, and I was too busy to approach that person anyway. I wasn't even sure if it was really someone familiar or not; in truth, I don't remember her face very well. We haven't seen each other in a long time," he explained, pretending to look a bit embarrassed. Whilst it was completely true that he had no idea what Naruto's girlfriend looked like, he didn't regret it at all. After all, he'd never been too fond of the girls from their class…

Both Kiba and Kurenai appeared to be astonished and interested in his words, which made him inwardly smirk, relieved by the fact that his little bluff seemed to be working just fine. It took the retired kunoichi more than a few seconds to slowly open her mouth, babbling,

"W-While it's… completely shocking to hear, I—," she looked at Kiba who stared back silently, worried, excited and dazed at the same time, just like her. "First of all, thank you very much for telling us. It means a lot... more than you might imagine," she whispered, lowering her eyes that began to tear up. "You see, we've already lost hope… weeks ago, to be honest. Considering what Kiba witnessed back then…"

Sasuke frowned, looking at the brown-haired shinobi.  _Witnessed?_  What exactly was this supposed to mean? Had he seen her die, or…?

"It happened during our last mission," explained Kiba quietly, meeting his puzzled gaze. "We were delivering some stuff to Suna. Our squad, that is. She was a part of it too, naturally. Well, we decided to halt a few miles away from their village, and made a camp for the night. That's when we got attacked. It was no battle… a butchery, no less. Most of us got killed, I was critically injured too. They definitely didn't think I'd survive, and Akamaru too," he nodded in the direction of the dog who whimpered quietly from its corner, raising its head a bit,

"I saw it, man. They…," Kiba threw another cautious glance at Kurenai who looked away, biting her lip and nodding, giving him the permission to continue. "They beat her up, badly. Tore her clothes off too… She tried to fight back to the end, but then one of them took out a sword and chopped her hands off," his voice cracked, and he squeezed his palms that lay on his knees, taking a deep breath before continuing,

"The last thing I saw was how one of them stabbed her. That's when I blacked out. When the shinobi of Suna found us, she was already gone, as well as a few others. Shino was there too… he didn't make it."

The oppressive silence filled the room as Sasuke was quickly proceeding the information he'd just received. He didn't know who Shino was, though the picture surely had just become a lot darker, knowing that they'd actually lost two team members in one night. Still, going back to what they were having at hand… Team Eight was never known for their extraordinary combat prowess, nor for healing abilities. A relatively weak kunoichi with her hands cut off, combined with a wound from a stab… The chances for her to survive were minimal if there were any at all. And yet, they had taken her with them, it seemed… Why?

"When did it happen?" he asked suddenly, breaking the heavy atmosphere of the room. Noticing the perplexed looks both of them gave him, the Uchiha added, "Naruto said he stopped sensing her chakra sometime after she'd gone to that mission. How much time had passed, exactly?"

"Oh… a few weeks, I guess," Kiba shrugged, frowning. As dense as he could be, it seemed that the guy also had a feeling there was something off with that timing. Because it could only mean that she had actually survived those wounds somehow and that she'd lived for quite some time afterwards…

"I see. At any rate, I'm going to find the person I saw to confirm if it was her or not. What I need from you is Hinata's photo," he said then, looking at Kurenai.

"Oh—yes, of course," she quickly nodded, getting up from the couch and walking towards shelving filled with various little statuettes, photos and other stuff that was evidently supposed to keep some memories to it. "Although I only have one of them left — the rest was taken by ANBU as soon as she was announced dead, this is the only one they let me keep. Here," she walked back to them, handing Sasuke a framed photo featuring a slightly younger version of Kurenai hugging three happily smiling kids.

Reluctantly, the scraps of his memories began to crawl out of the depths of his mind. The girl definitely looked familiar, though he was positive he'd never really interacted with her at all. Besides, she didn't make the impression of someone like Sakura or Ino who had always attracted everyone's attention no matter what. At least on this particular picture, he could only see a preposterous, clumsy-looking girl with an unattractive short hair, dressed in some baggy jacket that didn't look feminine at all. She must have been a really quiet one — that's most likely why he didn't remember her at all, not even her voice…

The Uchiha almost sighed, not really satisfied at all. The person on the photo was merely a child around eleven years old, and besides, her appearance had no memorable features aside from her timid lilac eyes, of course. Not taking them into account, there were probably thousands of girls across the Elemental Nations who looked pretty similar to her, with straight dark hair, fair skin and generally soft features. Besides, almost ten years had passed by now, so it would be impossible to recognize her in a crowd without knowing for sure what she looked like these days…

"I see," he said nonetheless, quickly making a mental copy of the photo with his Sharingan before returning it to the woman. "I'll see what I can do. Sorry for disturbing you, and thanks for your hospitality," he drank the entire cup of tea in one big gulp and got up, walking towards the exit.

"Sasuke-kun…!" He stopped, looking over his shoulder at Kurenai who now gazed at him with a hopeful plea that almost made him feel ashamed of lying to them. "If you happen to find her after all—or even something that's—that's left of her… Please, bring it to Konoha," she asked quietly, getting up as well, with Kiba quickly following. "We—," she lowered her eyes, and he could see that she was about to break in a sob, desperately fighting her tears in an attempt to remain stoic front of him, "We didn't even have anything to bury…"

"Of course," he said impassively, although he did feel compassion for both of them, of course. He simply wasn't someone to show his emotions and feelings openly… He'd never been the kind to.

"Thank you," she somehow pulled a tiny smile, putting her thin hand on his forearm and squeezing it lightly.

"Mommy?" A little girl showed up from a side room, yawning and rubbing her face. "Who's that?"

Kurenai didn't react right away, looking into Sasuke's eyes for a little longer. It was only then that he absently noticed how her face now had more than a few wrinkles, as well as a few grey hairs on her head glittering under the lamp's dim light. She was almost half a feet shorter than him now too... He could still remember this woman to be known as a strong, talented and relatively young kunoichi. A sensei just like Kakashi, someone who was supposed to always be much wiser, stronger and more experienced than them, their students.

And now, here they were... Not even a full decade had passed since those times yet, and things had already changed so drastically...

"I should be going," he uttered quietly, stepping back. "I'll do all I can."

"Thanks, man," came Kiba's mild voice from behind Kurenai. Their eyes met for a moment and Sasuke could see genuine appreciation and respect in the ninja's expression, to which he simply nodded with a deadpan before leaving the house — hopefully, for good.

The rain had already begun to gain momentum outside, but he didn't even notice it, still captivated by the final scene of their goodbye. For a moment, the way Kurenai had changed throughout these years made him wonder how swift and merciless was the flow of time. He realized that — rather sooner than later — he would grow older too. At least she had a daughter and a student who seemed to care for her deeply...

And what would  _he_  have five, ten, or even twenty years later...? At the current rate, most likely nothing. He would still be a lonely shadow fighting for the village that didn't even welcome him very much… Not that it wasn't his own fault, of course. Perhaps, if he spent more time here, people would grow used to his presence. Besides, he had sworn to protect the village, yet what did he have here to actually  _stay_  for? No family… No clan… No woman he would at least feel comfortable around.

With these mirthless thoughts, the Uchiha didn't notice how his feet brought him the cemetery of Konoha. Now walking aimlessly under the rain between countless graves and memorials, he eventually paused, feeling a familiar presence ahead. He raised his head, and then his eyes slightly widened in surprise as he saw the pink-haired kunoichi sitting on the iron fence with a bouquet of some flowers in her hands She was staring at the gravestone in front of her and not moving at all despite the rain making her clothes more and more wet with each passing moment.

"Sakura, huh?" He walked towards her, stopping a few yards away from her slouched figure.

She flinched and slowly turned around, looking at him blankly. He instantly realized something was wrong with his former teammate — her eyes were red, the light makeup she wore was now very messed up, and all in all her posture indicated that she wasn't feeling well, to say the least.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered weakly, now also looking a bit puzzled aside from depressed. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, what else?" He tried to joke in an attempt to loosen the atmosphere, but then the Uchiha noticed how her expression got even darker at his response. She turned away, lowering her head.

"Sorry," he muttered, coming close and leaning on the fence next to her. "You're all wet. You'll catch a cold at this rate," he added as softly as he could, wanting to comfort his old friend, whatever was bothering her. After all, he had caused enough pain to her, of all people, in their past… This was the least he could do right now.

To his surprise, though, she smirked in response, shaking her head and then pursing her lips.

"Why do you care, Sasuke-kun?" she asked in a slightly wrought-up tone that made him frown. "It's not like I've ever meant anything to you, is it?"

Words died in his throat as he realized he had nothing to counter that. She had a reason to believe that; frankly, he'd never given this girl nearly as much credit as she deserved… And even _that_  was an understatement, he understood it clearly now.

"I already told you I'm sorry," he said simply a few seconds later, still not moving his eyes off her. "I do care for you, no matter what you think."

"You do, huh?" she murmured, scowling. "Care so much that you haven't sent me a single letter in more than a year? Care so much that you didn't even tell me you were back? Care so much that you forgot to mention that you brought a girlfriend with you?!" she exclaimed, finally turning fully to look at him, not hiding the intense anger anymore.

Sasuke blinked, astonished both by her reaction and by the words she said.  _My girlfriend? What on earth is she—_

But then he even paled a bit, belatedly realizing what exactly must have happened.

"You… came to my place today?"

"I did it almost every day! Who do you think was taking care of your house while you were away?!" she cried, stepping away from the fence and facing the Uchiha now. "Do I really not deserve at least a little bit of gratitude and respect, Sasuke-kun?! Tell me!" she came closer, and he had to fight the urge to step away from her, remembering just how powerful her punch could be, especially when the girl was  _truly_  furious — and that seemed to be the case right now.

"You got it all wrong, Sakura…" He said calmly and paused, feeling very conflicted inside. He definitely didn't want to offer excuses to Sakura, or anybody else for that matter; not now, not ever. But, at the same time, he felt like he  _did_  owe her an explanation after all the pain he'd caused to this girl in their past, and even right now…

That's why he took a deep breath and looked firmly into her desperate eyes as he said,

"She's not my girlfriend. I told her to say it to anyone who would come while I'm away so that she wouldn't get interrogated or arrested."

"A-Arressted?" Sakura blinked in confusion, instantly losing the nerve. "Then… who is she?"

"I don't know," he said honestly, looking away.

"You… don't know?!"

"She is my responsibility now. This is all you need to understand," said the Uchiha, wiping the girl's broad forehead with his sleeve. "Are you sure you won't catch a cold?"

"I can heal myself even if I do," she shrugged indifferently, leaning on the fence next to him and looking at the gravestone once more. "So why did you come here?"

"Right here? Or in Konoha?"

"Both, I guess…"

"Naruto asked me to come to the village. He wanted to discuss some… things," he muttered, not really wanting to bring up the delicate topic once more this day. But, it seemed that any attempt to hide the elephant in the room would be totally pointless as Sakura nodded at the stone and uttered quietly,

"This is her grave…"

Sasuke's gaze slid to the wet marble a couple of yards away from them.

_Hinata Hyūga..._

"It's empty," he commented absently a few moments later as if to just break the heavy silence no matter what.

"I know," she nodded, rubbing her palms to warm up. "It's not uncommon for a ninja's tomb."

The Uchiha sighed quietly, looking away. She was right, of course… That was the gruesome reality of their lives, sadly.

"I'm going to leave again soon," he said after some time, glancing at her askance.

"I see," replied the girl neutrally, her face completely blank.

"Thank you for taking care of my place, Sakura. I really do appreciate it."

"You don't have to thank me, Sasuke-kun," she looked at him with a sad smile. "I would do anything for you, and you know it. It's always been this way."

He lowered his eyes again, feeling ashamed now. Of course, he knew it. To be honest, until the most recent events, he had already begun to consider the idea of getting together with her… No matter what she imagined, Sakura  _was_  an important person to him, it was pointless to deny it at this point. Did he love her, though? He couldn't say so; then again, he wasn't sure if he could love anybody at all in  _that_ way after all the things that had happened to him. Not so long ago, the idea of having a family with her almost seemed acceptable to him. Surely, he realized it would never be perfect. Maybe he would never be able to make her happy and vice versa, but at least neither of them would have to age in solitude.

But now…

He suddenly remembered the clumsy, anorexic, amnesiac girl who was waiting for him at home. Naturally, he didn't have any feelings for her either — it would be ridiculous, given that they had only met a few days ago, and she didn't even know who she was. However, the fact he had someone who depended on him  _entirely_ … He did realize that it limited his freedom to some extent. And perhaps it was this very limitation that had just caused this problematic misunderstanding with Sakura. But, now that he had accepted that girl as his responsibility, there was no way back. No matter what people might think of him, he wasn't heartless, nor selfish. Sasuke knew he would never abandon her. At least not until he would be sure she didn't need him anymore. And whether he liked it or not, there already was a bond between them. A bond he felt obliged to preserve.

And to that end…

"Sakura, we must settle things once and for all," he said in an iron voice, realizing that the upcoming words would hurt both of them, but also knowing that this was the best — no, the  _only_  way out of this situation nonetheless,

"Whatever feelings you have for me, I can't return. Maybe someday I will be able to, and maybe I'll regret it's too late, but I don't want you to waste your youth on the wait that will likely get you nowhere," he said as softly as he could, feeling her perplexed gaze on him but not wanting to meet her eyes right now,

"You and Naruto will always be my closest friends, it won't change. I don't know when I'll return to Konoha the next time, but I will. And I want to stay for good when I do," he continued, looking at the horizon thoughtfully. "That's why you need to stop worrying about me. Right now, Naruto needs you a lot more than I."

Listening to him carefully, Sakura sighed as he paused, biting her lip and looking away shamefully.

"I—I guess you're right… I've been a horrible friend to him lately, not gonna lie…," she uttered sadly, putting her hands on her knees. "But, the way he is now, I—I suppose, it's just so unnatural to see him like this… completely crushed and lost," she ended the phrase whispering, hugging herself uncomfortably. "Maybe I'm just afraid to look him in the eye when he is like this... Afraid of what I might see there."

"You are forgetting that Naruto is not just our friend. He is the future of Konoha," said Sasuke, getting up. "We must make sure he gets over this, no matter what. For the sake of the village."

"You know, he once told me Hinata was the only thing that hadn't let him give up at some point during the war," suddenly said Sakura, looking at the gravestone absently. "He called her the light that gave him the power to do everything. So in a way, without her, we would have lost to Obito and Madara back then."

The Uchiha eyed the name inscribed on the marble again, comprehending her words. It was hard to imagine that such an inornate, grey and seemingly uninteresting person he'd seen on the photo could be  _that_  important, especially to someone like Naruto… This realization almost made him regret he'd never even talked to her when she was alive. And now he had no chance to. Yet another ironic whim of fate... Fortunately, he'd long learned to overcome such whims against all odds.

"One doesn't need this light in order to keep doing what they must. Trust me, I know for a fact," he replied after some time, putting his hands in his pockets.

"You deserve your own light, Sasuke-kun..." He shrugged.

"Who cares? Didn't I just say I don't need it?" He squeezed out a grin, though it wasn't a joyful one at all.

"But, Naruto said—"

"It doesn't matter what he said. He will come to his senses eventually. I believe in him, and so must you." He met her widened eyes and added, "I am his sword to fight the darkness he can't deal with by himself. And you must be his shield, whether you like it or not. Just like the two us, you are a ninja. You always said you wanted to keep up, didn't you? If so, then just like us, you must endure." He turned around, beginning to slowly walk away, leaving his teammate alone.

What he didn't see was how she smiled a few moments later, her face finally expressing the former energy and confidence once more as she got up and ran back towards the village. She had yet to realize it, but this conversation gave her the feeling of closure she had secretly craved for a very long time...

What  _she_  didn't see, however, was what was going on inside Sasuke's heart as he realized he had just burned yet another bridge, perhaps a very important one. And even though he knew it was inevitable, it still hurt him more than he had expected it to… All of a sudden, the almighty Uchiha felt just as lonely as he had thirteen years ago when he was a mere child who'd just lost everyone. And this long-forgotten, suffocating feeling that had come back after everything he'd seen, heard and said today was disturbing him more than he would want to admit...

— **=oWo=** —

Almost an hour after the pink-haired lady left the house, Hinata finally managed to calm down, taking hold of herself and trying to think with a cold head. She'd been horribly worried and frightened of having possibly done something wrong; the way that woman had run away clearly indicated that something was seriously wrong. And she had no slightest idea what that was no matter how much she thought about it…

But, eventually, she assured herself of the simple truth. Sasuke had told her that nobody important would come, and he'd also given her clear instructions on how to behave, so she couldn't have done anything wrong. The rest was probably just her overthinking the whole situation and nothing else...

Still, not feeling completely over that incident, she decided to do keep herself busy doing something useful — anything to stay distracted until Sasuke would finally return. That's why she headed to the kitchen and began to cook dinner for both of them — or rather, bake it because she hadn't found anything aside from floor, butter and some fruity jam.

When she had almost prepared the pancakes, Hinata heard the door open and close once again, this time the familiar sound of light footsteps making her smile happily — it was  _him_ , not some other stranger. The girl took the last pancake off the pan and walked out to greet Sasuke. But, as soon as she saw him in the guestroom, she froze.

He was sitting on the floor with his back to her, hugging his knees and staring blankly at the picture on the wall — his family, as it wasn't hard to deduce by just glancing at it. Unsure what she was supposed to do, the girl waited for a minute, studying him carefully. She quickly noticed that he was completely wet, but Sasuke didn't appear to care, the water slowly flowing down to the wooden floor...

Trying to be as quiet and subtle as possible as she was afraid to bother him, she decided to slowly come closer, only then coughing in an attempt to draw his attention. But, he still didn't seem to notice her at all…

"Sasuke…," she said a bit louder and stopped just behind him, noticing with great relief that his head slightly shifted to the side — he heard her. "You must be cold…"

"Hn." He didn't say anything, returning his gaze to the family photo instead.

Hinata sighed, grabbing a broad woollen blanket from the pile of freshly ironed clothes. She then lowered on the floor right next to the ninja, carefully wrapping it around him. With her next move, she carefully wiped the unruly strands of his hair with the edge of the cloth. He didn't react to her actions at all, which made her conclude that something had to be seriously wrong, but her intuition told the girl it most likely wasn't about her. Although this fact was actually rather sad than relieving — if she were the cause of his mood, at least she would be able to try to fix it somehow…

She didn't know what she expected to happen, but Hinata kept sitting next to him for a while, eventually spacing out to the point where she completely lost the track of time. At some moment, she looked at him again — his expression and posture hadn't changed at all.

"Um… Sasuke—," she paused, seeing as he didn't react this time either. With a light sigh, she began to get up, but then the girl flinched as she, much to her astonishment, found him gripping her wrist, slowly turning his head and looking up at her.

"Wait," he said quietly, meeting her puzzled and worried gaze. "Stay," he ordered, although she couldn't help the feeling that it sounded more like a plea than a demand. So she obediently sat back, staring at the floor in front of her and beginning to blush — he was still holding her hand, and his fingers were so cold… It suddenly made her want to warm him up as much as she could.

Hinata didn't know how much time had passed until he finally turned to her again and asked almost casually:

"The smell is good. What did you make?"

She flinched, her eyes widening in fear at his words.

"O-Oh…! They must be cold already — the pancakes," she murmured, lowering his eyes sadly.

He shrugged, letting go of her hand and quickly getting up.

"Doesn't matter. We must have a good meal tonight, so quantity goes over quality anyway."

"Um… really?"

"Yeah. We're leaving in a few hours, so make sure to prepare."

"Oh," she lowered her eyes again with a quiet sigh.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his brow arching slightly.

"N-Nothing at all… It's just that—," she bit her lip, hesitating to continue which made him scowl impatiently.

"Just say it already."

"It's nothing, really," she raised her head up and looked at him with a sorrowful smile. "It's just that I wanted to stay here for a bit longer… I like this place," she admitted, her cheeks flushing brightly.

He looked away, not saying anything for a while.

"Maybe one day—," he stopped, frowning. After a few seconds of still, Hinata carefully asked:

"One day…?"

"Forget it. Let's go eat," he snapped, taking the blanket off himself and throwing it on the couch before walking towards the kitchen.

The girl smiled timidly, quickly getting up and taking the wet blanket in her hands, wanting to put it to the dryer. She took a deep breath, unwillingly inhaling the smell of rain mixed with Sasuke's own... the smell associated with the only home she remembered ever having.

Unexpectedly, it made her mood a lot better as she realized a simple thing. It didn't matter that they were about to leave this place. It didn't matter who she had once been either. Now her home was next to him, plain and simple. And she knew she would never leave his side... at least as long as he would let her stay with him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. The White-Eyed Ghost**

While the rain kept steadily drumming on the roof of the old house, perfectly accompanying the tranquillity that filled Sasuke's room as he was peacefully sleeping in his bed, Hinata's heart was not at ease at all. Hugging her knees tightly, she was sitting on the floor near the window just a couple of yards away from him, staring blankly at the closed door of the room and thinking about various things.

Needless to say, now that a few days had passed since her miraculous 'revival', there was a lot on her mind. Contrary to what one might imagine, the easiest part of everything that was disturbing her at the moment was the girl's past, namely the things she had forgotten. Frankly, one didn't have to be a genius to realize that nothing good had happened to her in captivity. Although she felt strangely disconnected from all of that to a certain degree, almost as if it had happened to a different person, it was still very uncomfortable for her to even imagine some of it. Given her body's past condition, Hinata was inclined to think it was something truly horrible. It made her feel dirty, tainted, violated… honestly, there were just too many epithets to describe it and yet none of them fully expressed how it really affected her soul even though she had no idea what exactly had happened. Naturally, she couldn't possibly like this feeling. That's why the rookie kunoichi decided to forbid herself from reflecting on any of it, instead pretending that it had indeed happened to someone else, and wanting to silently bury that unexplored part of her life for good.

She slightly turned her head, glancing at Sasuke, and smiled warmly. Now, having analyzed her saviour's behaviour quite a bit, she was under the firm impression that he wasn't too willing to find out the truth either. Although she wasn't sure why his attitude was that way, Hinata felt grateful, so she decided not to ask him anything on the matter. Besides, Sasuke had given her a second chance without asking for anything in return, yet giving her so much for free... In her eyes, he was the most noble and kind person she knew despite his usually gloomy mood and slightly incisive manners. The least she could do to pay for it was to try not to bother him without any real necessity...

Her gaze then slid to the shelving on the opposite wall, and she quickly spotted a small photo of young Sasuke hugging another smiling boy who looked quite similar to him, except probably a few years older. Hinata's smile vanished as she studied their happy expressions, instead replaced with a compassionate face full of concern. She'd never asked him any questions concerning his own past, but she was shrewd enough to realize by now that he had no family left and that he missed them all awfully...

That moment a few hours ago down on the first floor, when she found him completely downcast and lost, and how he asked her to stay... Afterwards, they had talked about a lot of random things until he finally fell asleep with her still sitting next to the bed in his room. She hadn't left him for a minute ever since that moment, preferring to stay somewhere close even though he hadn't asked her to — at least not after the first time down there. Strangely, despite not remembering if she had any family or not, Hinata felt like she could understand what he felt, surrounded by all these things reminding him of everyone he'd lost… She was beginning to understand why, unlike her, he wanted to leave as soon as possible. For a moment, the girl wondered if she could ever change it for him… Hypothetically, of course. She wasn't brave enough to imagine anything like that as a real thing.

Hinata sighed, lowering her head again as she felt quite torn. On the one hand, she really wanted to become a kunoichi and to learn how to defend herself, so that Sasuke wouldn't have to babysit her forever. She also wanted to help him in his journey, and to fight his enemies back-to-back with him… The girl realized it would be impossible to achieve without leaving this zone within the village she found so comfortable. On the other hand, some part of her wished she didn't have to do any of it all. Instead, she secretly wished for an opportunity to settle down, to make a family, to raise up a child… to just be happy in peace...

Her suddenly eyes widened in fear, and she touched her belly absently. This thought hadn't visited her head before, but what if she actually had a child waiting for her somewhere? Or a husband? Or parents…?

Shaking her head abruptly, Hinata clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, frowning and feeling tears coming to her eyes as the cold resolve began to fill her heart. Whichever part of it might be true, this was all gone now. She had died in that cage; maybe not physically, but the mind and soul she'd once had would remain there forever, and she didn't want to retrieve it at all. Not because she wouldn't want to become whole again, but rather because she knew that the return of her memories would also imply make her remember those terrific things she didn't want to ever remember. If she did, she would never be the same anyway; at this rate, was there even a point in going there?

Besides, she'd been blessed with a second chance. She didn't know if she believed in fate, in a god, or in any other deity. However, she realized one thing for a fact — this second chance, this new life was given to her for a reason. And what reason might that be...?

Very timidly, she glanced at the Uchiha again, instantly feeling her racing heart begin to calm down. What had happened when he returned a few hours ago… It was just a glimpse, a small moment of weakness to him, but to her, it meant much, much more than just that. It showed her that deep under the shell of an incredibly strong, proud and unyielding person, Sasuke was very hurt. And unlike her, he remembered it all. Having also lost a lot, he bravely faced his personal hell every second of his life, and now she had seen a shade of his pain and loneliness which probably were just the top of the iceberg. She  _had_  seen it in his dim onyx eyes, there was no mistake... After all, maybe there was a reason why it was  _he_  who had found her. Maybe there was a reason why it was  _her_ he had found…

Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand Hinata smiled, feeling somewhat reassured. She then stared at her forearm, blinking a few times. The scars she had seen just this morning — a few of them appeared to be gone… Now that she thought about it, given that she'd been a complete mess just days ago, and now she felt almost perfectly fine... Why was she healing this quickly? Could it be that the doctor's potion was  _that_  effective, or was it something else? She wasn't sure if it was natural at all…

Suddenly, Sasuke moved in his sleep, his quiet groan and the scowl on his face instantly attracting her attention. The young woman got up, soundlessly coming close — his blanket had almost slipped down on the floor. She smiled, carefully fixing it and lightly patting the ninja's head with her fingertips. Coincidence or not, but his face slightly relaxed at her touch, and in a matter of seconds he was already just as calm as before. Eventually, Hinata stepped back, folding her hands in front of her. Truly, he looked like an innocent child… she just couldn't help but find him adorable like this...

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. And so did this magical moment — she suddenly heard the entrance door down below close shut, someone's footsteps echoing loudly across the empty house. Not wanting for the unexpected guest to wake Sasuke up, she quickly transformed, readjusting her dark-grey sweater so that it would fit her new body just as good as it did hers. Then Hinata quickly walked out, closing the door and going down the stairs.

To her great surprise, the visitor turned out to be Sasuke's friend Naruto who, not noticing her quiet approach, put a heavy-looking cardboard box on the same coffee table they had occupied the other day, and wiped his forehead before stretching his back. His clothes and hair were completely soaked with rainwater, but he didn't seem to care, staring at the open box silently for a while.

"Um… Naruto-san?" she uttered, unsure what to do. She assumed Sasuke would like to talk to the blond man before leaving, but she also realized he was pretty tired and needed to rest. Unlike her, he'd spent the last few days almost entirely on his feet…

"Eh?" The ninja dressed in a black shirt with rolled-up sleeves combined with bright orange pants turned around, frowning at her. "Who are you?"

Hinata gulped nervously, belatedly realizing that she hadn't paid much attention to her disguise, having picked it pretty much randomly this time.

"Oh—we have met briefly the other day when you came here that evening. I—I am Sasuke's companion..."

"Hm-m," he rubbed his chin, cocking his head and narrowing his eyes in a funny manner rather than a suspicious one. "Did ya always look like this? I thought I saw someone else back then…"

Desperately trying not to look as afraid as she really was, Hinata smiled nervously and nodded quickly.

"Y-Yes, I was. I—I brought both of you tea while you were discussing your… uh, what happened to your lover. You—you probably didn't pay much attention to me."

Naruto's face darkened a bit at her words, the goofy glimpse in his eyes instantly disappearing and getting replaced with the apathetic expression she had seen before.

"Right… sorry. Guess my mind was kinda far away, y'know?"

She smiled warmly, suppressing a sigh of relief.

"Please don't worry, Naruto-san, I understand. Would you like some tea?"

"Sure," he shrugged, scratching his nape. "Eh, by the way, where's Sasuke?" he asked, watching her go to the kitchen to turn on the kettle.

"Asleep," replied Hinata quietly as she returned to the room. "He's very tired and we're leaving soon, I didn't want to wake him up. Is there something — something urgent you need to discuss with him? I could—"

"Nah, it's fine," he smirked weakly, waving his hand off dismissively. "Nothing urgent at all. I was on my way to the Hyuga estate, wanted to give this to old man Hiashi," he nodded at the box on the table, "It's all the stuff left from her in my place. So I decided to drop by on my way to thank teme for the talk he gave me, that's all. Eh, gotta say it helped me a lot. Plus, Sakura-chan also just knocked some sense into me." His lips curved in a tiny dreary smile, but his blue eyes definitely looked a lot more alive than before. Hinata could see it clearly, and although this person was almost a complete stranger to her, for an unknown reason it made her feel happy for him.

"I—I see," she replied carefully, glancing at the open box. There were a few clothes, toiletries, a hairbrush and also a few notebooks as far as she could see. "You—you look much better than before," she uttered and smiled sheepishly, locking her hands behind her back.

"Yep! I guess I'm still kinda screwed up, but I'm really getting better, hehe," he chuckled, eyeing her up and down with a slightly cheesy expression. "So, are you… Sasuke's girl?"

She blushed, quickly beginning to feel unnaturally hot. Sasuke had told her to say just that to a stranger who would come, but this person technically wasn't a complete stranger, was he?

"N-No, I'm his student," she uttered after a short pause.

"Student?" Naruto blinked a few times in surprise, his brow raising up a bit. "Aren't you too old to be a student? Ugh… Sorry, I shouldn't have said it to a girl," he flushed in embarrassment, looking away

She giggled, finding Naruto to be pretty cute in his blunt and awkward manner of talking.

"It's okay. In truth, I don't really know how old I am."

"Ha! That's what a real lady would say!" He smirked, raising up his thumb."So what exactly does he teach you?"

Hinata looked at her palm, clenching her fingers a few times.

"Well—mostly hand-to-hand combat… You see, I have very poor chakra reserves, so I can't do any great ninjutsu." She smiled, spreading her hands as if apologetically.

Naruto closed his eyes for a few seconds and then sighed sadly, nodding.

"Yeah, I can barely sense your chakra. It's almost like with Lee, but a bit different," he murmured as she quickly went back to the kitchen, returning with a cup of tea shortly and placing it on the table next to the box. "Thanks, erm—sorry, I don't remember your name…?"

She froze for a moment, unsure of what to say. Naruto was probably the only person she wouldn't want to tell her name to, knowing it would inevitably hurt him to hear it again. However, it was the name she had chosen for herself, so she had a right to use it… hadn't she?

"Hina," she finally muttered, meeting his baffled gaze bravely. "It's nice to meet you, Naruto-san."

"Hina, huh…," he murmured with a perplexed, conflicted expression. All of a sudden, his goofiness was completely gone; now she felt as if his eyes were staring somewhere very deep into her soul, and Hinata found it pretty uncomfortable, feeling as if he could easily see through her little lie. "I see. Nice to meet you too, Hina." He took the cup and sipped the green tea, as if not noticing that it was almost boiling hot. "So how did you guys meet?"

Now that was something she and Sasuke hadn't discussed. Was she supposed to tell him the truth, or come up with another lie…?

"Sasuke—he saved me from some nasty people," she began warily, deciding to be sincere in general after all. "He came to the rescue when I had already lost any hope."

"That sure sounds like Sasuke," Naruto nodded approvingly, though his face remained just as serious and emotionless as before, not even a sign of a smile. "Letting someone stick around doesn't, though."

"I—I had nowhere else to go," she lowered her eyes and bit her lip, recalling her earlier musing on the topic. "So he decided to teach me to protect myself before leaving me."

Naruto remained silent for a while, continuing to study her very attentively which made the girl gradually feel more and more uncomfortable. Eventually, he sighed quietly, nodding at her while she was desperately trying to avoid his searching gaze.

"I see. I've always known he had a kind heart despite being a bastard," the blond smiled, taking another sip. "Anyway, I should be going. Thanks for the tea and sorry for breaking in like this." He smirked and put the half-empty cup down, grabbing the box with a grunt. "Hope you take good care of teme, wherever you guys are going to."

"I will!" She beamed, feeling great relief both due to him leaving and to his seemingly relaxed expression. "Thank you, Naruto-san!"

"See ya around!" He turned to the door and stepped forward, but the next moment the ninja tripped over the bottom corner of the table and cursed loudly, inadvertently dropping the box that hit the floor with an awful rumble. A few items fell out of it, rolling in different directions, and several lists of paper were slowly descending to the floor, finishing the messy picture.

"Damn! Sorry…" He lowered down, quickly collecting all of it and putting it back into the box. It didn't go unnoticed by the girl that he was handling everything very gently, even blowing the dust off such a trivial thing as a pencil.  _He must have really loved her deeply,_  Hinata thought sorrowfully, putting her palm on her chest as she was watching him, yet not daring to offer her help as it was clearly a private matter to the young man.

"Well, that's it," he murmured, carefully closing the box and getting up. "Sorry for the mess! Hope to see you again one day… Hina." He gave her a sad smile before turning around, opening the door and storming out, almost as if he wanted to get away as soon as possible for some reason.

Hinata inhaled, wiping her forehead and sitting down on the couch. She didn't know why it had turned out this way, but the conversation that had just happened was probably the most stressful one she'd had so far…  _By far._

Her eyes suddenly stopped on the slightly crumpled list of paper showing from under the couch — apparently, Naruto hadn't noticed it, too hurry to leave. She bowed down and retrieved it, giving it a quick glance. The paper was covered by multiple lines written with an almost calligraphic accuracy, most definitely by a girl's hand.

… _December 27th._

_Today I'm turning 20! Father is going to finally meet Naruto-kun as my boyfriend. I'm so excited and scared at the same time! We will tell him about our relationship... I wonder what is he going to say. I'm not sure if…_

She quickly looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed. Hinata didn't know why, but it just felt wrong to read something that was clearly a part of someone's private diary. Maybe she needed to give it back to Naruto? He mustn't have gone too far yet…

Then again, her chakra was about to expire as she hadn't had much of it left after the day of training. She had to cancel the transformation as soon as possible to prevent any nasty consequences...

Realizing that she didn't have much time, to say the least, Hinata jumped up, carefully folding the paper and hiding her in the back pocket of her tight black pants. Without thinking, she put her sandals on and opened the door, wincing a bit as the rain had apparently intensified. Her eyes instantly found Naruto's back — he was about to approach the gates by the end of the desolate street about fifty yards away from her...

"N-Naruto-san…!" she yelled, making a few steps forward but then quickly realizing that the sound of rain probably made it impossible for him to hear her from this distance. She was about to run after the blond ninja, but someone's hand on her shoulder stopped her, making the girl flinch.

"What's going on?" asked Sasuke, making her turn around and stare into his slightly displeased sleepy eyes. "What was that noise?"

"Um—Naruto-san came here, b-but I—I didn't want to wake you up…"

"What did he want?" he asked, looking in the direction of the gates, but not seeing anybody — the other ninja had already gone.

"W-Well—he said he wanted to thank you, and that he wanted to bring that girl's belongings somewhere—to someone he called 'old man Hiashi.' He also looked a lot better than the last time…," she lowered her eyes, looking away sheepishly. "Then he tripped and dropped the box."

"Hn. Sounds like him." He let go of her shoulder, carefully removing a strand of her slightly unruly hair off her eye. "Your face has completely healed."

She nodded absently at first, but then paled, realizing what she had almost done. Her disguise must have vanished, and she was about to run out without it…!

"M-My transformation jutsu…!" she whispered and paled, covering her mouth with her palm.

"Huh?" Sasuke's eyes widened a bit before he realized what exactly had scared her so much. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'd checked up the bingo book. You're not a criminal, after all, so you don't have to hide anymore."

"R-Really?" Hinata smiled happily, suddenly feeling a strong urge to hug him — until now, she'd never realized just how frustrating it was for her to be forced to constantly hide her face from everyone.

"Yeah," he yawned, turning around and walking back inside the house. "We should get going soon. Make sure to prepare."

— **=^w^=** —

A few hours later when it was already well past midnight, they were standing there at the door again, except this time Sasuke was locking it up from the outside. The rain was still just as intense, adding up to the melancholic atmosphere in the air. Hinata held back a sad sigh, forcing out an optimistic smile instead. She preferred to hope she would come here again one day, instead of believing that she was about to leave for good...

"This is it," he said, turning to the girl and giving her an impassive glance. "How are you feeling? Can you carry your bag by yourself?"

"Y-Yes," she smiled timidly and nodded, feeling touched by his care. "I'm feeling well, almost great. That potion must be magical," she mused, giving him a slightly puzzled look as she was curious to hear his opinion about the unnaturally quick recovery.

"Hn." Apparently, he wasn't in the mood for a conversation, so Sasuke just grabbed his own hiking bag and put it over his shoulder. "Let's go," he added, putting the hood on and walking down the few steps from under the canopy over the porch and finally striding away from the house.

She did the same, covering her head with the black fabric from the water showering from the dark skies above. As they left the territory of Sasuke's clan, she began to look around curiously, finally having an opportunity to study the village outside of his residence without being stressed as much as before. There weren't many people outside right now, naturally — not only it was already very late, but the weather certainly wasn't all too inspiring for a casual walk at night. The few civilians and ninjas they encountered didn't pay any attention to the couple, either rushing to whatever business they had or talking to each other while hiding from the rain together. In spite of the not-so-pleasant circumstances, Hinata absently thought that all in all, Konoha seemed a lot more nice and welcoming right now than it had been the evening they had arrived. She felt like she almost had an attachment to this place, especially now that it was so comfortable outside. Though, the girl realized that the feeling was irrational because there was nothing tying her to this settlement aside from Sasuke… was there?

As they approached the main gates of the village, the Uchiha turned around and said:

"Go forward, then turn to the left at the first fork you see. After that, proceed down that path without turning anywhere, I'll catch up shortly."

Her eyes widened slightly in fear and excitement at the same time. Walking alone in the night forest… Was she ready for it?

"Um… are you sure…?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I just need to say a few words to them," he muttered irritably, nodding at the small security post near the gates — there was no light coming from the windows, clearly indicating that it was either empty, or the guardians were asleep. Evidently, neither of these options made the Uchiha very happy...

"As you wish." She nodded and walked forward while he quickly strode towards the post.

As she crossed the border of Konoha, walking down the road under the shadows of countless trees surrounding the village, Hinata's anxiety quickly diminished, replaced with the absent-minded state again. The atmosphere around her was just too calm and amicable. Besides, now that she thought about it, there was probably nothing to be afraid of in such close proximity to the settlement...

Absorbed by her thought, the girl kept walking in the direction Sasuke had pointed before she eventually lost the track of time and distance. Having quickly accustomed to the pace she'd taken as well as the monotonous environment, the young kunoichi didn't react right away to the distant noise coming from somewhere to the left of her. Only when she heard it for the second time did she flinch and stop, turning her head in its direction and blinking a few times.

It was..  _a child! A crying child…!_  
  
She rushed toward it, breaking through the tickets and feeling how her clothes and skin were getting slightly torn and cut here and there. But, Hinata didn't care right now. Her heart was racing and her eyes were open wide — the sound was getting closer and closer…!

In a matter of a few seconds, she ran into a tiny glade completely surrounded by multiple trees. She instantly spotted the source of the plaintive whimpers. It was a little boy dressed in a humble beige training suit, and his small body was hopelessly pressed down to earth by a huge log…

With a frightened gasp, she stormed towards him, quickly grabbing the log with her hands and trying to lift it up. Of course, it was no use — frankly, the girl wasn't sure if she would be able to move it even if she weren't in this weakened state…

"Hold on, I'm going to help you!" she murmured, not noticing that the boy was completely silent now, staring at her with an almost mortified expression.

Concentrating in her fist the small amount of chakra she had left, Hinata hit the log just a few inches away from the child, choosing the trajectory so that it would jump up and fly off his body — which it did, just as she'd planned, making the kunoichi smile happily with a tiny bit of pride.

"Are you alright?" She turned to the kid and already reached out to help him get up, but then paused mid-way as she noticed his fearful stare. What was he so afraid of? Did he assume she was a hostile ninja or a bandit? "Please, don't be scared, I'm not your enemy…" She smiled cheerfully, stretching out her hand.

"I know who you are," he whispered, slowly crawling away from her. "You—you're a ghost!"

 _Huh?_  She blinked, unsure of how to react.

"I'm not a ghost," she said patiently, giving him a timid reassuring smile. "If I were one, would I be able to move that log?"

The boy frowned, comprehending her reasoning for a while. But, then his eyes widened even more. He got up, slightly staggering as he clearly wasn't exactly feeling alright, having spent some time pressed down to earth. He then slowly came close to her. She was still standing on her knees, so their eyes were almost on the same level; her white irises meeting his lilac ones filled with astonishment and… recognition?

"It—it's really you...," he whispered, reaching out and touching her cheek with his tiny hand.

"Hm?" She gave him a puzzled look, now confused even more than before. "You should probably go back to the village. Your family must be looking for you—"

"You should do the same!" he whispered, lowering his hand.

"Oh, I will," she replied firmly, an image of Sasuke popping in her head for a split second. "Now please go home, you shouldn't stay here alone."

"Uh… will you—would you come—with me?" he murmured, his worried pupilless eyes full of hope now.

"I have some things I must do," she smiled at him, patting his brown-haired head gently. "I will pay you a visit one day, I promise."

"Can I tell everyone that you saved me?" he asked sheepishly, still not removing his awed gaze off her face for a second.

"Um… Sure, I guess." She shrugged indefinitely, not seeing any reason to object.

The boy's features finally relaxed, and he smiled widely, a cute dimple appearing on his wet and dirty cheek.

"Thank you! Please come to us soon, Hinata-sama!"

She froze as if someone had just stabbed her in her chest. Not noticing it, the boy turned away and quickly jumped on the nearest tree, momentarily disappearing in the night forest and leaving her completely dumbfounded and shocked.

 _Hinata-sama…_  How? How could this boy possibly know her name…?

"Hey, what are you doing here?" She flinched, hearing the familiar voice she probably needed the most at the moment. Hinata got up on her numb, shaky legs, slowly turning around to see Sasuke's face that showed her a mix of surprise, curiosity and irritation at the same time.

"I—I was helping a child… He was stuck—that tree—"

"And where is he?" The Uchiha looked over her head to study the empty glade before returning his slightly sceptical gaze to her.

"Um—he ran away…," she babbled, still too shocked to say anything else.

"Whatever. From now on, if I tell you to do something, make sure to follow my orders exactly as I say. You could have been lured into a trap and gotten killed. What were you thinking?"

"I—I'm sorry… I promise I will."

"Hn. Let's go." He turned around and began to walk away.

Hinata followed him tightly, unable to get the happy and excited lilac eyes of the child out of her head. For some reason, she was glad Sasuke didn't ask for any details of this bizarre encounter… She didn't know why, but the kunoichi had a feeling this was something he should never ever find out. And she should just forget about it as soon as possible.

But, could she?


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. Echoes of Madness**

"…This is why you must learn to control your chakra. Even just a tiny bit of it allows you to defy basic laws of nature, such as gravity. Thus you must always keep in mind that these laws are meant for simple humans, not for you. Thanks to chakra, some of them you can avoid, others – completely ignore. Do you understand?"

She nodded meekly, assuming the battle stance he had taught her and looking into his eyes bravely. It had been almost two weeks since they'd left Konoha. Although they barely talked, instead dwelling each in their own thought, for the most part, the two of them had been actively sparring every day so far. Surely, some results were bound to show soon... at least so she wanted to believe.

"Now strike me... if you can," he commanded, standing just a few yards away from her, as calm and relaxed as ever.

With no hesitation whatsoever, Hinata rushed forward, trying to land a few blows, each of them blocked by Sasuke with his usual ease. Too captivated by the task at hand, she didn't pay enough attention to notice that the Uchiha was actually mirroring her pace precisely, attacking her back just as often as she attempted to hit him until eventually sending her heavily on the ground with a seemingly light punch.

"Good," he nodded with approval as she winced, raising her head and trying to get up. "You're making progress, already improvising."

"I can't even touch you…" She smiled sadly before rolling to the side and sitting on her knees, trying to catch a breath. The girl wiped her forehead and shoulders – it was quite hot out there, so she was now wearing only a white sleeveless tank top along with her tight black pants. And even so, it was getting difficult to train in this stuffy weather…

"That… is not a problem of your skill," said Sasuke, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

"Then what is it?" asked Hinata timidly, quickly getting up again and feeling a tad confused. How could it be something else given that she had  _no skill_ , to begin with…?

"Enough talk," he snapped, clearly not going to elaborate. She could only nod obediently in response, realizing that the time for a conversation would come later, when he would decide. And so Hinata attacked him with a graceful swing of her leg without warning, initiating another sequence of strikes.

They kept exchanging blows, hard and easy ones, for a couple of minutes. He knocked her down a few times, but the girl persistently got up every time, attacking him again, and again. From an outsider's point of view, it could seem as if they were evenly matched. But, when she was about to let out a triumphant cry as her fist was an inch away from his nose, he kicked her in the stomach heavily with his knee. His motion was deceivingly quick and light, almost casual, but Hinata instantly forgot how to breathe as her back slammed into a huge tree. She slowly slid down to the ground, wincing in pain that filled her entire ribcage as well as the middle part of her spine.

"What is it, you asked?" he muttered, coming closer.

"You—you are faster…," she panted, this time not hurrying to get up.

"And why do you think is that?" Hinata frowned at the question, slowly eyeing him from his feet to his head. Surely, her body had almost completely restored by now. As miraculous as it was, the kunoichi was in decent shape at this point, though still looking a bit too skinny. But, the difference between them was just  _too_  tremendous... It had to be something else.

"You have much more chakra... and—"

"Do you really believe it is my chakra that boosts my reaction, strength and speed enough to prevent you from even touching me?" he asked with a note of almost mocking joy clearly audible in his voice, making her grit her teeth in frustration.

All of a sudden his only visible eye flashed with bright red, and he ascended over the soil of the glade, floating mid-air a few feet above the ground. As she met his slightly arrogant gaze, Hinata's mouth opened in awe as she stared at him in shock, amazement and disbelief at the same time. Of course, she had known he was a powerful shinobi, but  _this_ … this was something else. Surely, he hadn't lied about defying gravity. It seemed as if to him, it didn't exist at all!

"...And I wasn't even using my Sharingan. All of what you saw until now was only due to training. Lots of training and nothing else." His eye turned black again, and he lowered on the grass softly, barely making a sound. "One more time," he ordered, looking at her impassively.

Already having a vague idea of what kind of a thing this Sharingan was, still staring at him with admiration, Hinata gulped nervously and nodded, getting up and raising her hands again.

As they continued their hand-to-hand spar, the girl couldn't notice that her movements were gradually getting more and more swift. Her blows were getting heavier too, now actually taking Sasuke some effort to block, however small it could be.

"You can go quicker. There is no limit," he cheered her as their hands clinched, the faces of the two ninjas now being so close that she could feel his steady warm breath on her skin. She blinked in confusion, meeting his blank gaze. Was he talking about the rules of the spar, or… referring to her potential, possibly? No, that was a silly idea…

Jumping away from him to regroup, she then charged at Sasuke once again, and they kept dancing around each other for some time. Frankly, Hinata was beginning to feel downright frustrated, almost desperate. She was already quite exhausted, her entire body was hurting, but she had yet to deliver a single hit…

"Stop thinking and analyzing, just strike!" he barked irritably at some point, his elbow poking heavily into her chest the next second, making her gasp.

Another series of mutual attacks followed. Hinata could feel her smashed underlip bleeding after one of Sasuke's blows, but for some reason, this annoying aching combined with her frustration and exponentially uprising anger only made her fight even more fiercely. Shortly, the young woman began to feel the unprecedented ardour. And now, rapidly losing the last bit of control over her emotions, almost as if entering a frenzy, she continued to push him further and further until the Uchiha's back got pressed against a thick oak. His eyes widened a bit as he saw her fist approaching his chin, stopping just half an inch away from his teeth and changing its trajectory at the last moment.

The girl panted, reflectively falling onto him as the momentum of her blow got absorbed by the wood behind Sasuke's back. Her lips curved into a tiny proud grin as she studied the ninja's expression that was a mixture of confusion, surprise and slight embarrassment at the same time. Their faces were now just a couple of inches away from each other, and neither of them was in a hurry to move away…

"Why did you stop?" finally asked the Uchiha curiously, looking into the white irises.

"Why did you not dodge?" she parried in a strangely silky voice that was slightly lower than usual. She knew it too well that he could have avoided her attack effortlessly — his speed was unparalleled when he needed to be fast. But now, with her blood boiling due to the heat of the battle, and the buildup of raging fire swirling through her veins, ready and desperate to come spewing from every pore in her body, Hinata had once again lost control over herself. In truth, it had taken all of her willpower not to hit him in the end… Unconsciously, she secretly found it very tempting, realizing what he would have done in return — she remembered the previous occasion of that kind clearly. It almost made her feel dissatisfied… by the lack of the physical feeling of his wrath unleashed upon her.

 _Just what am I thinking…?_  She blinked, realizing to her own horror that she was essentially craving to get hurt by him. This was not normal… by no means.

As she was busy analyzing her feelings, their chests remained pressed to one another, so they could feel each other's hearts pounding unnaturally intensively. Though, unlike Hinata, Sasuke's wasn't tired nor even heated up at all...

"You deserved some payback… For all you've taken today," he muttered, his eyes stopping on her underlip. Happy that he was clueless about her sudden inner discovery, Hinata studied his face as well, for the first time having an opportunity to see it this closely.

"I-Is that so?" She stuttered, her courage quickly fading along with the adrenaline rush. Her previous playfulness and passion quickly got replaced with her usual shyness and hesitation, as well as shame caused by that brief unnatural feeling that was now almost making her feel disgusted by herself...

Sasuke didn't respond, but he didn't move away either, as if temporarily hypnotized by her searching gaze as her palm slid in between their bodies, stopping on his chest just above his racing heart. He could feel that she wanted to push him away reflectively but hesitated for some reason...

With both of them mesmerized by the surreal, sweat and completely unexpected moment of intimacy, their eyes closed and their lips got very close before touching ever so slightly. Time seemed to have frozen; neither of them dared to move, but Hinata could feel that his heart was now beating even stronger than before. As she apparently gave in, her fingers clenched on the fabric of his shirt, and he slightly leaned forward too, his hand slowly rising up behind her back to find her waist…

A tiny bird chirped just above the two young ninjas loudly, making both of them flinch as if they got electrocuted that same moment. Their eyes snapped open; both the Uchiha and his companion blushed, looking away from each other in opposite directions.

"You're bleeding," he murmured after a few seconds of meaningful silence, his eyes stopping on her cracked lip. "I guess we should stop for today."

Hinata gulped, slowly nodding and stepping back, almost reluctantly.

"S-Sorry," she whispered, staring at the ground sheepishly, the blush never leaving her face.

Sasuke straightened his shirt before taking the unbuttoned jacket off and hurling it offhandedly onto a stub near the small campfire. There were already quite a few clothes and other things lying over there in a jumbled mess, but neither the Uchiha nor his protegee seemed to care one bit about the order right now.

"It's getting pretty hot," he murmured, narrowing his eyes at the contents of the steaming kettle fixated above the fire. "The smell is nice."

Hinata blinked, snapping out of her wistful reflection.

"Uh—the stew…? I–I found the recipe written in the notebook in your house—in the kitchen… There were many of them," she mumbled, stuttering a bit.

"And you remembered it?" He threw a slightly surprised glance at the girl as he lowered his spoon into the kettle and then put it in his mouth.

"Y-Yes…," she babbled, watching him taste the fulvous steaming liquid with a few tiny pieces of forest mushrooms in it.

"Not bad," he drawled approvingly before taking another spoon. "This brings back memories…," he said quietly to himself. Hinata realized he just reminisced something from his distant past but decided not to ask what it was, as usual.

"Now sit down and eat, you need to restore your energy," he commanded without looking at her.

She hesitantly came close, lowering onto her travel cloak she'd put on the grass near the campfire, and then finding a spoon for herself.

"Your face...," he muttered, suddenly touching her chin with his fingers and then carefully lifting the girl's head up a bit as she froze with a full spoon in her hand, afraid to move. "It's already healing," he observed, studying her lip.

"Oh...?" It definitely didn't sound like a bad thing to her; however, Sasuke's thoughtful, almost tensed up voice made her second guess it.

"At first, I believed it was the potion that old man had given you, but now... It's clearly something else," he mused, squinting a bit under the sun – the crack on her lip had indeed already granulated, and all the bruises from yesterday's training were completely gone at this point as well.

"W-What are you thinking now?" she asked timidly, blushing again as he was still touching her jaw with his gentle yet strong fingers.

"Nothing in particular," he shrugged, finally letting go of her and turning his head away. "I guess we'll see one day. This could be the only reason why you're still alive at all, though."

She lowered her eyes sadly, biting her lip which caused a light prickle of pain. Sasuke was clearly referring to her days in captivity... His words made sense, of course. But still...

"Um... how far away is our destination now?" asked the girl, deciding to change the topic as she'd suddenly lost any appetite, putting the spoon into the kettle and looking at Sasuke curiously.

"We'll get there by nightfall. The desert is just a few miles away now. Then we'll have to walk to Sunagakure for a day, not longer than that."

Hinata nodded, hugging her knees and giving the clear azure sky above them a troubled stare, not for the first time feeling quite uncomfortable as she thought about their current quest.

"D-Do you think you— _we_  will manage to find that place?" asked the kunoichi carefully, afraid to look at Sasuke. The truth was that, although she couldn't explain it even to herself for some reason, she desperately didn't want to actually find it... Some inner feeling kept quietly yet persistently whispering to her that it was a very bad idea. And the farther they got, the louder this maddening irrational voice was becoming...

"Well, it's a desert, and it's like looking for a needle in the dunes. On the other hand, it's not like we'll be looking for it on our own. Gaara will give us some guides who should know where to go."

"Gaara...?" She blinked. The name was not familiar at all.

"Yeah. The Kazekage. Our shinobi got killed within his territory, after all. Time to hold him accountable," replied Sasuke, staring at the fire with a shadow of a nostalgic smirk playing on his lips.

Hinata smiled weakly, looking away once more. No matter how she tried to approach it, the idea of finding the place where Naruto's girlfriend and her team had gotten ambushed didn't seem appealing at all; if anything, it was the polar opposite to her. Still, it was Sasuke's decision to go for it. She could only follow him, for arguing would be pointless. Besides, she was not in the position to question his goals. There was one thing about his reasoning she could not understand, though... That's why, deciding that, perhaps, it was a good time to ask, she opened her mouth hesitantly:

"Um... Sasuke...," she began, still not looking at him.

"What?" He glanced at her, lazily chewing a piece of hardtack they'd taken from Konoha.

"You said that you think that— _that_  Hinata is dead...," she paused, waiting for his response.

"Yeah," he slowly drawled, looking away.

"But, why are we doing all this then? This investigation..." She glanced at him askance, noticing how the ninja frowned watching the flames dancing in front of him. "I apologize if it sounds indignant, but I–I think you are contradicting yourself." She gave him a vigorous look, having finally collected her courage.

His gaze slid at her again. With a deadpan expression, he looked at the girl for a few seconds before letting her continue with a brief nod.

"You–you keep saying that you believe her to be dead, b-but… You have been searching for any clues very thoroughly so far. Furthermore, you told me you had important things to do... Before you found out all of this. Why have you changed your mind so drastically? Especially if you truly believe her to be—"

"There is something I want to check. No… actually, two things," he interrupted her before sending the last piece of food into his mouth.

"Two things...?" she echoed, baffled by his unexpectedly straightforward reply.

"Yeah. I was told that her team got attacked by some raiders in the desert. But, their behaviour didn't seem like that of a typical bunch of thugs, the way it was described to me anyway. They were organized well enough to take down a full squad of experienced shinobi in a matter of minutes. Moreover, they killed most of them without mercy, yet decided to spare a single person, and took her with them. Given the efficiency of the ambush, it is only logical to assume they came specifically after her. Maybe for her Byakugan, maybe for something else… Either way, I suspect they could be more dangerous than everyone believes. I want to find them and get rid of them before they've caused even more trouble."

This certainly sounded convincing enough, so Hinata simply nodded, pretty much satisfied by this part of his explanation.

"And... what is the second thing?" she asked a few seconds later.

He didn't reply right away, but eventually muttered darkly, evidently not liking his own words:

"I was told that her hands were cut off during the ambush. If that is true, we might find some of her remains in the sand. I want to retrieve them."

This time it was her turn to frown. What he was going to do wasn't exactly the same as digging graves, but it sounded dangerously close to that…

"W-Why would you need to search for her remains...?"

"If we manage to get a certain portion of her DNA, I know a person who can confirm whether she is alive or not. Based on that, we will know what to do next," he explained, leaning back on the tree and locking his hands on his nape, looking at the sky meditatively.

The kunoichi lowered her eyes, gazing at her bare right hand and clenching her fingers a few times. She carefully studied the pale skin of her arm, from the thin wrist almost to the shoulder, every inch of it. Truly, there was not a single visible scar at this point. And yet...

— **=^w^=** —

**_Approximately five months earlier..._ **

_Step…_

_Step..._

_Step…_

Yet another step… and another one, each of them making her feel the increasing awful ache in her ankles, knees and hips. They had been walking for hours — or maybe days — honestly, she had long lost the track of time at this point. The dirty, disgustingly stinky piece of dark fabric wrapped around her head certainly didn't help the situation — the kunoichi had no slightest clue where she was, who was surrounding her, and where they were going to. She knew there were a few of them, but they barely talked to each other, or perhaps, she was getting deaf. Either way, to her, none of it really mattered. All she wanted right now was to just lose her consciousness… which, given the circumstances, would most certainly mean her death. She didn't want to die, naturally. But, at the same time, she didn't really mind such an outcome at all. Although she wasn't about to give up — because she never did, no matter what — deep inside the girl already realized that she was done. That there was no hope.

Besides, having recently witnessed the death of her teammates and one of her best friends...

She bit her lip, desperately trying not to think about it, nor about anything in particular. Granted, it was not too hard in her current state. Heavily injured, deprived of food, sleep and even water for such a long time, she was already delirious, barely able to think straight at all. If things remained that way, maybe she would die her own death instead of getting killed by these people after all. This idea actually warmed her up a tiny bit, as awful as it sounds...

However, a change was near, though a gruesome one. Without any warning, someone roughly pulled her long hair from behind, making the kunoichi gasp in pain. Her knees trembled, and she fell on the cold firm ground, instantly receiving a heavy kick on her kidneys that knocked her down completely.

"Get up, little whore! Get up before I cut off your head!" someone hissed into her ear, grabbing her hair again which made her reflectively yelp. A small part of her wanted to resist — after all, she wasn't all too afraid of death, especially not at this point. However, she also had something —  _someone_  to stay alive for — so she decided to obey, forcing herself to stand up on her shaky legs against all odds.

"That's it, bitch. Now get inside, don't make me say it twice," the man tossed her forward like a ragdoll, and her forehead bumped painfully into something thick — a piece of metal, it seemed — before she bowed down and basically fell forward again with no energy left to walk, heavily panting. As her throat was letting out uncontrolled husky hisses, she found herself lying on the surface of something just as cold and metallic — a cage, perhaps…?

"Good girl," the person screamed like a hyena, making her cringe, wanting to cover her ears just not to hear his ugly voice. Of course, she couldn't do  _that_  anymore… She had almost forgotten.

"Well, well, let's have some fun!" She heard his approaching footsteps and then gasped once more, feeling as he roughly grabbed the cloth on her head and pulled it off.

Having spent so much time in the darkness she squinted, even though the sun was about to set behind the trees of the forest, so its light wasn't all too bright. She was indeed in some cage, as she'd suspected; the girl could see quite a few people around — two dozens at the very least — building up a camp, and the one who was apparently her warden…

Her lilac eyes widened cautiously as he took a kunai out of his pocket, squatting next to her and smirking maniacally. His face was pretty young and delicate, almost nice-looking, but the expression… It was downright _inhumane_ , making her want to run away as far as she could. And his eyes... they belonged to a monster, not to a human.

Although, of course, she realized that she couldn't so much as get up right now, let alone run.

She quickly studied herself, trying to avoid looking into his crazy eyes no matter what. Her heart clenched as her gaze stopped on what was left of her hands — both of the limbs were cut off slightly below the elbows. Unlike with the blindfold, the stumps were carefully wrapped by clean white bandages… With her consciousness slowly beginning to shut down, she absently wondered why and who had been so careful to treat her wounds this way.

"Now tell me, little bitch… Do you like it rough?" Her captor hissed, instantly bringing her back to the harsh reality. Her eyes widened in fear as the kunai effortlessly cut through her jacket, the cold steel of the blade quickly reaching the skin on her stomach. She whimpered in pain as he slowly moved the weapon down, tearing her clothes apart and leaving a deep cut in her flesh, giggling in amusement at every haggard sound she made.

The girl closed her eyes, biting her lips to blood just not to give this atrocious person the pleasure of seeing her helpless tears. She was naive, yet by no means a fool; she knew what exactly was coming as he removed her torn underwear, gripping her thin neck and beginning to strangle her while, at the same time, spreading her legs with his other hand.

There was only one thing she could think of at the moment; she knew it was futile, but it was the only straw she could hold on to in order not to lose the last bits of sanity as her body was getting violated by the monster who was, unknown to her, only the first in line to torture her in the nearest future.

_Naruto-kun… please… save me..._


End file.
